Dakar 2009 - Cars: De Villiers clinches Dakar win

Eurosport - Sun, 18 Jan 21:58:00 2009

South African Giniel De Villiers was crowned Dakar Rally champion after winning the 14th and final special stage.

2009 Dakar Stage 12 Volkswagen De Villiers - 0

The Volkswagen driver won the 791km Cordoba-Buenos Aires route, including 227km timed against the clock which he completed in one hour 35 minutes 43 seconds, finishing ahead of Russian Leonid Nowitskiy (BMW) and Krisztof Holowczyc (Nissan).

American Mark Miller, De VIlliers' team-mate, was runner-up after finishing sixth on the final day, with Nowitskiy completing the podium.

De Villiers, whose win was his second in a row and fourth overall, had an 8mins 59secs advantage over Miller.

"It's just incredible, I've never felt this way. I was so nervous in the last kilometres. I kept looking at how many kilometres we still had to go," De Villiers said.

"I am so thrilled for the whole team, for Volkswagen, who have supported us for five years before reaching this victory."

Runner-up Miller, also of Volkswagen, added: "Finishing second is great. It could have been Giniel or me - that's the race. I am still young and I will have plenty more opportunities to win this race.

"The team won and that was our goal. It's really awesome."

Sporting Life / Eurosport

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  1. More chance for the Matador, ole.

    From wizzo, on Fri 9 Jan 11:16AM

  2. @NANCY. this is not a porn site

    From Andrew, on Fri 9 Jan 11:03AM

  3. Well didn't see this comming. And with Mitsubishi running into trouble every single race i think it's safe to proclaim Volkswagen the winner of the 2009 Dakar rally

    From martin.mitevski26, on Fri 9 Jan 8:15AM

  4. Overheating? Typical of the overpriced, over-advertised, under-engineered, mass-produced "@#$%" BMW is now coming out with. Wouldn't have happened a few years ago. (Probably cutting costs, by using chinese-made spare parts instead).

    From Don P, on Fri 9 Jan 7:17AM

  5. It's got to be a bigger story than this. How could al-Attiyah miss 9 (!!) points ?!?!

    With his budget there's no ways satnav or his navigator could be that far off track.

    From Daryn Reeds, on Fri 9 Jan 5:09AM

  6. so what who really cares im sure he'll be bac next year hes got enough money to do what he wants anyway bring us some proper sports news not this guff

    From ian a, on Fri 9 Jan 1:49AM

  7. and..????

    From JAMES, on Fri 9 Jan 12:45AM
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