Dakar: de Villiers boosts Nissan

The Nissan Pickup driver, the only team member left in the chase nwo that of all its leading lights (including Colin McRae) have hit problems, came home just over three minutes ahead of event leader Stephane Peterhansel after one of longest sections of the event - the special stage was 586km long!

Peterhansel and Mitsubishi team-mate Luc Alphand are understandably winding back the pace now that they are over 40 minutes clear of Jutta Kleinschmidt's works VW. Nevertheless they still came in second and third fastest.

Bruno Saby moved up to fifth overall at the expense of Nani Roma, but behind de Villiers, with the fourth best time on the stage.

Robby Gordon's eventful Dakar continued in characteristic fashion. This time the American was forced to stop to repair damaged shock absorbers on his factory VW after 100km. His woes were not as bad as those of Josep Maria Servia, who has dropped to tenth overall after ending up in a tree.

The Schlesser buggy driver had to flag down a fellow competitor to help him free the Ford-powered vehicle before he could carry on.