American Mark Miller and his South African co-driver Ralph Pitchford continued on their merry way by recording the fourth best time of the day in the 488km fourth stage between Jacobacci and Neuquen in western Patagonia on Tuesday.
The pair, driving a factory Volkswagen Racing Touareg, held on to their sixth place overall, and have now closed to within five seconds of the fifth-placed Spanish combination of Nani Roma and Lucas Cruz Senra and in a Mitsubishi Racing Lancer.
Teammates Carlos Sainz of Spain and Frenchman Michel Perin posted Volkswagen’s second successive stage from stage-one winner Nasser Al Attiyah of Qatar and Swede Tina Thorner in a BMW X3.
Sainz, twice a former world rally champion, and the Qatari, winner of the 2008 Cross Country Rally World Cup, staged a stirring battle throughout the day and were never far apart.
Despite a slow puncture, Sainz held off Al Attiyah to take line honours by just six seconds and now leads overall from the BMW driver by three minutes 46 seconds.
South African Giniel de Villiers held on to third place overall after he and German co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz finished sixth on Tuesday’s stage in their VW Touareg, one minute 28 seconds behind teammates Miller and Pitchford, and five minutes 48 seconds behind Sainz and Perin.
”We had a reasonable run today,” said Pitchford.
”It was an interesting stage. We went from an altitude of over 1 300m to just 300m above sea level. It was hot and dusty and we again had to be careful passing bike riders.”
With a quarter of the race already run, they are 20 minutes behind the leaders, which, in Dakar terms, is not a lot.
Wednesday’s fifth stage is 763km long with a 506km special stage and takes the competitors from Neuquen north to San Rafael.
A combination of winding paths and slow tracks mixed with fast sections and some off-road sections will test the competitors and provide a more technical challenge. — Sapa