South African driver Giniel De Villiers, in a Nissan, and French motorcyclist David Fretigne, riding a Yamaha, won the third stage of Dakar 2004, a 9km loop around on Saturday.
It is the first rally win for De Villiers who timed 6min 22sec to finish four seconds ahead of Belgian Gregoire De Mevius in a BMW with overall race leader, French Mitsubishi driver Stephane Peterhansel, third at five seconds.
Peterhansel heads the overall standings 5 sec ahead of Spain’s Josep Maria Servia.
”That makes up for the anxieties I had on Friday,” said De Villiers, who finished 16th on Friday over two minutes off the pace.
”It’s terrific to break one’s duck in the Dakar.”
Fretigne builds on his overall lead after his second straight win on his maiden appearance in the race coming in ahead of KTM riders, Cyril Despres of France — who trails him by 16sec in the overall standings — and Giovanni Sala of Italy.
”I wasn’t expecting this at all,” said Fretigne. ”I didn’t take any risks during the early climbs in the stage. ”But then I relaxed. The most satisfying thing is I didn’t make any errors which was my target for the rally.”
The competitors next travel to Morocco for Thursday’s 752km run between Tangiers and Er Rachidia. – Sapa-AFP