-
-
Veszprem, Thursday 23th April 2008
Gaps shrink in the general standings
The return to the Hungarian plains and its quicker terrain lead to
a reshuffling of the pack during the 4th stage of this first
Central Europe Rally, and so the gaps in the general standings
have shrunk.
In the bike category, the day was won by Cyril Despres, who put in
performance of rare tenacity because he managed to regain two
minutes on the race leader over the 60-km morning special. As a
result, the Frenchman climbed several places up the race
hierarchy, and now occupies 4th place in the general standings,
but still trails leader David Casteu by a little more than 11
minutes. Despite a nasty fall in the second special in the
afternoon, David Casteu (KTM) still leads this first Central
Europe Rally, but Slovakian Jaroslav Katrinak (KTM) and Chilean
Francisco Lopez are starting to make up ground on him.
As for the quad race, the hard-fought battle for first place was
compromised in the first special of the day when Romanian Paul
Razvan Irimescu (Polaris), 2nd in the general standings, rolled
his quad. As a result, Frenchman Hubert Deltrieu (Polaris), the
winner of this 4th stage, now boasts a lead of more than 30
minutes over his nearest rival.
In the car category, after VW driver Giniel De Villiers’s win in
this morning’s first special, it was Nasser Al Attiyah (BMW) who
won the special in the afternoon at the end of a wonderful tussle
with Carlos Sainz (VW), which came down to a matter of seconds.
However, over the two time trials, it was the Spaniard Sainz who
turned out to be the stage winner, only 6 short seconds in front
of Qatar’s Al Attiyah and 1’29” ahead of De Villiers. The outcome
is that in the general standings, the South African has taken 2nd
place back from Germany’s Dieter Depping (VW), which will no doubt
concern Stéphane Peterhansel, still the race leader, but 6th today
and only 1’44” ahead of De Villiers. In 4th and 5th place
respectively, Nasser Al Attiyah and Carlos Sainz can hardly be
separated: the gap between them is only 19 seconds!
www.dakar.com
|
