THE gruelling 2016 Dakar rally saw a podium finish for South African driver Giniel de Villiers on Saturday‚ while countrymen Leeroy Poulter and Yazeed al Rajhi finished fifth and 11th.
The 13th and final stage of Dakar 2016 may only have been 180km but what it lacked in distance‚ it made up for in suspense.
For Toyota Gazoo Racing SA‚ Stage 13 was the final challenge separating veterans De Villiers and navigator Dirk von Zitzewitz from a place on this year’s podium.
They had multiple WRC winner Miko Hirvonen (MINI) pushing hard to knock them down to fourth place‚ but the pair prevailed and sealed third‚ by posting a time just 03:08 behind stage-winner Sebastien Loeb (Peugeot).
“We knew Miko would be fast on the final stage‚” said an elated De Villiers from the finish podium in the Argentine city of Rosario.
“The stage included some sections that would have been very familiar to him‚ having competed in WRC rounds in Argentina. So we pushed‚ but to a safe limit‚ and also kept it tidy. In the end we did enough to stay ahead of the Finn.”
As it turned out‚ Miko did go fast‚ stealing an early march on De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz.
But after initially opening a gap of two minutes‚ the South African driver managed to
protect his place.
De Villiers finishes Dakar in fine style
The 13th and final stage of Dakar 2016 may only have been 180km but what it lacked in distance‚ it made up for in suspense.
For Toyota Gazoo Racing SA‚ Stage 13 was the final challenge separating veterans De Villiers and navigator Dirk von Zitzewitz from a place on this year’s podium.
They had multiple WRC winner Miko Hirvonen (MINI) pushing hard to knock them down to fourth place‚ but the pair prevailed and sealed third‚ by posting a time just 03:08 behind stage-winner Sebastien Loeb (Peugeot).
“We knew Miko would be fast on the final stage‚” said an elated De Villiers from the finish podium in the Argentine city of Rosario.
“The stage included some sections that would have been very familiar to him‚ having competed in WRC rounds in Argentina. So we pushed‚ but to a safe limit‚ and also kept it tidy. In the end we did enough to stay ahead of the Finn.”
As it turned out‚ Miko did go fast‚ stealing an early march on De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz.
But after initially opening a gap of two minutes‚ the South African driver managed to
protect his place.
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