Dakar 2012 Stage 4 - Minis still lead, disaster for Olholm

After a slow start, de Villiers may turn out to be the man to watch, as he is an extremely consistent driver, having finished all but one of his eight Dakar campaigns in the Top 7. Just like in 2009, he will be lurking just behind the other competitors, ready to pounce whenever they make a mistake. Argentina's Orlando Terranova finished second on Stage 4 at the wheel of another Hilux.

The Hummer of Nasser Al-Attiyah led at the stage's first two checkpoints (km 137 and 252), but the fears on the defending champion and his team mate were confirmed 288 kilometres into the special, when the driver from Qatar got stuck in a muddy area. It took him 13 minutes to get out of it and he now lies 30 minutes behind Peterhansel in the overall classification, in what is a serious blow to his ambitions of winning the rally. His team mate, Robby Gordon, second in the general classification before the start of the stage, also lost heaps of time. A series of flat tyres cost him 18 minutes, pushing him back to 16'23" behind the French leader.

Aussie entrant Geoff Olholm had a disastrous Stage 4, blowing a turbo in his BMW-powered Rabe X1 early in the Special Stage, and was still yet to complete as this article was published. Olholm and his British co-driver, Jonathan Aston, were in a very respectable 25th overall in the car category before the mechanical problems. Whether Olholm will be able to continue is yet to be confirmed.

Full results and further details at www.dakar.com

Images: dakar.com