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De Villiers clinches crucial victory

South African Giniel de Villiers has struck a significant blow to his rivals in the Dakar's eighth stage, scoring his third victory of the 2007 edition

The Volkswagen driver, who took the overall lead before Saturday's rest day, won the Dakar's longest and probably hardest stage after completing the 589 kms in just over seven and a half hours.

De Villiers has won from Frenchman Stefan Peterhansel, who finished over six minutes behind his rival.

Despite not having scored a stage win yet, the Mitsubishi squad enjoyed a good day, with reigning champion Luc Alphand finishing in third place, nine minutes behind de Villiers.

De Villiers' position at the head of the standings has been strengthened thanks to the problems suffered by Volkswagen teammate Carlos Sainz.

The two-time world rally champion, second in the overall standings until today, endured a dismal day, losing a lot of time after his power steering broke early in the stage.

Sainz's problems have left de Villiers with a 31-minute lead over Peterhansel, who moves into second place with a week of the rally left to run.

Alphand is now third, 43 minutes behind the leader, while Sainz looks to be out of contention after losing over an hour. The Spanish driver has dropped down to fourth place.

BMW's Qatari driver Nasser Al Attiyah finished the stage in fourth position, while American Mark Miller was fifth, over 27 minutes behind de Villiers.

The Dakar stays in Mauritanian soil tomorrow, when drivers will face one of the event's classic stages: a 494-km special from Tichit to Nema.

Stage 8 classification:

Pos Driver      Make              Time
1. de Villiers  Volkswagen     7h31:52
2. Peterhansel  Mitsubishi   +    6:35
3. Alphand      Mitsubishi   +    9:11
4. Al Attiyah   BMW          +   12:09
5. Miller       Volkswagen   +   27:22
6. Schlesser    Schlesser    +   48:50
7. Sainz        Volkswagen   + 1h04:12
8. Gordon       Hummer       + 1h14.44

Overall standings after stage 8:

Pos Driver       Make             Time
 1. de Villiers  Volkswagen       23h35:53
 2. Peterhansel  Mitsubishi      +   31:13
 3. Alphand      Mitsubishi      +   43:04
 4. Sainz        Volkswagen      + 1h05.51
 5. Al Attiyah   BMW             + 1h44:14
 6. Schlesser    Schlesser       + 2h00:59
 7. Miller       Volkswagen      + 2h18:01
 8. Masuoka      Mitsubishi      + 2h40:33

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