Special stage takes its toll on drivers

DAKAR RALLY: Defending champion Stephane Peterhansel moved into the overall lead of the Dakar Rally with his second stage victory on day seven.

The Mitsubishi driver beat Nasser Al Attiyah's BMW by 25 minutes and 40 seconds across the longest special stage of the event between Zouerat and Tichit to knock overnight leader Bruno Saby off the top spot.

Saby damaged his Volkswagen Touareg on the course and lost nearly half-an-hour. Juttah Kleinschmidt clocked the third-fastest time in his Volkswagen to move up to third overall, with Luc Alphand finishing fourth after earlier losing four minutes when he got stuck in some camel grass to end the day in fourth overall.

Many cars suffered problems on the demanding 660km stretch of desert. Jean-Louis Schlesser lost a vital amount of time as he waited for assistance to fix the left rear wheel of his Ford, while 1997 Dakar winner Kenjiro Shinozuka retired from the rally having rolled his Nissan.

Former world rally champion and four-time Dakar winner Ari Vatanen, who lost time with transmission problems on stage six, and Volkswagen's Robby Gordon - after crashing yesterday - resumed normal service.

Frenchman David Fretigne won the bike stage on his Yamaha as Marc Coma regained the overall lead - finishing four minutes and 31 seconds adrift.

MOTOR SPORT: Antonio Pizzonia had a Formula One drive with Williams almost sewn up until Germany's Nick Heidfeld came into the picture, Frank Williams claimed yesterday.

At a news conference to announce a sponsorship deal with the Royal Bank of Scotland, Williams said that his team now needed more time to decide between their Brazilian test driver and his experienced rival.

Williams said both could expect contracts "whoever loses will still be offered a test drive," but a decision could be some weeks away.

"Nick's arrival into the testing scene was not foreseen," said the team boss. "We were very comfortable with having Antonio for 2005 but we felt it would be sensible to look at a rival in case there was someone better out there."

TENNIS: Thanks to sponsors Danone, Ireland's junior tennis aspirants will have a lot more to look forward to during 2005. Danone sponsorship has been synonymous with tennis here for a number of years but yesterday's announcement of a Junior Masters series is seen as quite a boost for Irish tennis.

And the event could not have come at a better time with top prospects such as Harry Heyburn (Belfast), Niall Murphy (Tramore), Laura Milner (Castleknock), Justin Flynn (Wicklow) and Paul Fitzgerald (Sunday's Well) currently heading their respective leaderboard.

These talented players along with Sinéad Kennedy (Claremont Railway Union), Amy Bowtell (Greystones) and Charlotte Headon (Clontarf) are the other front runners.

The Danone Junior Masters is a series of six matchplay events culminating in the masters finals at under 18, 16, 14 and 12 level over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Points will continue to be allocated at the spring championships, the provincial championships in March and the national matchplay in April ahead of the May Bank Holiday finals.

GOLF: David Howell has won the Royal Bank of Scotland shot of the year award for his superb tee shot during Europe's record Ryder Cup victory.

Howell and fellow Englishman Paul Casey were one down with two holes to play against Chad Campbell and Jim Furyk after 16 holes of the Saturday morning fourball match.

The 29-year-old from Swindon then proceeded to strike a magnificent six iron from 203 yards to within five feet of the pin at the 17th and rolled in the putt for a birdie to square the match. Casey's par on the 18th then secured a victory which proved pivotal in the final outcome.

At one stage Bernhard Langer's side were in danger of losing the session 4-0, but the English pair's unlikely victory saw the visitors claim one and a half points.