Gordon takes surprise Dakar stage win

Although Peterhansel, the winner of yesterday's stage, had looked set to take his 53rd partial win, it was Gordon, starting from 11th, who eventually took the spoils with his Hummer.

It was Gordon's first win of the Dakar this year.

The stage from Flambala to Copiapo was delayed and shortened by 40 kilometres, and was completed in one hour and 40 minutes, as the competitors crossed the Andes.

X-Raid driver Peterhansel, meanwhile, extended his lead at the head of the Dakar standings despite finishing in second place today.

The nine-time winner finished over two minutes ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah in the quickest of the Volkswagens, the Qatari leading team-mate Carlos Sainz home.

Last year's winner Giniel de Villiers was fourth toady, but the South African is already out of contention after losing nearly three hours in yesterday's stage.

In the overall standings, Peterhansel leads from Sainz by seven minutes and 36 seconds, with Al-Attiyah in third nearly 10 minutes behind the Frenchman.

Stage four results:

Pos  Driver        Car            Time/Gap
 1.  Gordon 	   Hummer         01h40m21s
 2.  Peterhansel   BMW            + 1s
 3.  Al-Attiyah    Volkswagen     + 2m26s
 4.  Sainz         Volkswagen     + 3m04s
 5.  De Villiers   Volkswagen     + 4m1s
 6.  Miller 	   Volkswagen     + 6m14s
 7.  Terranova     Mitsubishi     + 9m06s
 8.  Baldwin 	   Hummer         + 10m53s
 9.  Novitskiy 	   BMW            + 11m4s
10.  Neves 	   Volkswagen     + 11m22s

Overall standings after stage four:

Pos  Driver                Car         Time/Gap
 1.  Stephane Peterhansel  BMW         10h54m50s
 2.  Carlos Sainz          VW           + 7m36s
 3.  Nasser Al-Attiyah     VW           + 9m56s
 4.  Mark Miller           VW           + 19m25s
 5.  Alfie Cox             Nissan       + 59m30s
 6.  Krzysztof Holowczyc   Nissan       + 1h00m38s
 7.  Carlos Sousa          Mitsubishi   + 1h03m00s
 8.  Robby Gordon          Hummer       + 1h04m53s
 9.  Guilherme Spinelli    Mitsubishi   + 1h16m23s
10.  Mauricio Neves        Volkswagen   + 1h20m35s