De Villiers wins Dakar SS3
South African Nissan star Giniel de Villiers won the third stage of the Dakar Rally at Castellon in Spain today. This was the last of the short special stages in Europe before the rally gets underway in earnest in Morocco tomorrow.
De Villiers, who is team-mate to Colin McRae, finished four seconds clear of Grégoire de Mevius in a BMW. Third went to Stéphane Peterhansel of Mitsubishi.
The overall classification is still headed by Peterhansel, who is five seconds ahead of the Schlesser buggy of Josep-Maria Servia. De Mevius is third, 22 seconds from the lead.
McRae was seventh today, and lies eighth overall.
The competitive section was just 9km out of a day out of an 865km route that took the competitors south through Spain and into Tanger in North Africa.
Tomorrow the first serious special stage will be run, from Tanger to Er Rachidia, 75km away.
Peterhansel (Mitsubishi) 31m30s
Servia (Schlesser-Ford) +5s
de Mevius (BMW) +22s
Alphand (BMW) +35s
Biasion (Mitsubishi) +41s
Masuoka (Mitsubishi) +59s
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