Giniel de Villiers holds third at Dakar Rally

Giniel de Villiers and co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz have managed to retain their overall third place position after a gruelling week at the 2013 Dakar Rally. Friday’s Stage 7 between Calama in Chile and Salta in Argentina went well for the duo who finished the stage without problems and continue to lead the four-wheel drive petrol T1.1 class in their Imperial Toyota Hilux Bakkie.

Rain causes delay for Giniel de Villiers on Stage 8

Stage 8 of the Dakar Rally commenced on Saturday 12 January 2013 and was the longest stage of the week, covering a distance of 849km between Salta and San Miguel de Tucuman in Argentina. Torrential rains and flooded rivers resulted in special stage 8 to be reduced from 470km to 185km. A swollen river 30km from the end of the stage prevented all but five cars from reaching the finish and race direction applied the slowest stage time of the finishers to all those who failed to finish. This decision has been contested by some of the competitors and the current results are subject to confirmation.

Stage 8 was won by Guerlain Chicherit and Jean-Pierre Garcin of France in a two-wheel drive SMG Buggy. Giniel De Villiers and Von Zitzewitz were among those who were unable to cross the flooded river. Current official results place Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel and Jean Paul Cottret in first place with Nasser Al-Attiyah and Lucas Cruz in second place, 3 minutes 14 seconds behind the leaders.

De Villiers and Von Zitzewitz are in third place, 44 minutes 3 seconds behind the leaders. ??“It was quite a challenging stage!” said De Villiers. “It went well for us. We started fifth and overtook Nasser when he suffered a puncture. Then we reached a river which was totally flooded. It was impossible to cross. We heard from the organisers that the rest of the stage was neutralised and that the result would be taken as at Check Point 2. It was a pity, as we were having a good run and would probably have been able to make up a bit more time by the end.”

??Stage 9 – Dakar Rally??

Sunday was considered a rest day with Stage 9 continuing on Monday with another tough stage over 293 kilometres San Miguel de Tucuman and Cordoba in Argentina. The cars start Stage 9 at approximately 2:03 PM (SA Time).