Fatality overshadows stage four

MOTOR SPORT/Dakar Rally:Jean-Louis Schlesser finally broke the Volkswagen stranglehold on the 2007 Dakar Rally after winning stage four of the endurance event, but the result was overshadowed by the death of a competitor in the motorbike category.

South Africa's Elmer Symons (29), a debutant at the annual race, was killed following an accident 142km into the 405km special stage between Er Rachidia and Ouarzazate.

Symons had been 18th overall in the event which is considered one of the most challenging and dangerous in the world of motor sport. The race has now claimed 49 lives in its 29-year existence, 24 of them competitors. One competitor and two children were killed last year.

The KTM rider was the first competitor to die in this year's race which ends in the Senegalese capital on January 21st.

Schlesser, a two-time Dakar winner, powered to victory in his two-wheel-drive Ford-powered buggy to bring an end to the dominance of the four-wheel-drive entries and improve to seventh place overall. The one-time Formula One driver finished the lengthy fourth stage, the second of three in Morocco, in a little under four hours.

Stage one winner Carlos Sousa finished second in the first of the Volkswagens to move third overall, while outright rally leader Carlos Sainz consolidated his position at the top of the leaderboard by bringing his VW Touareg home in third place.

The Spaniard enjoys the better part of a two-minute lead over team-mate Giniel de Villiers at the head of the overall standings, with the South African forced to settle for fifth place yesterday after winning Monday's special stage.

Mitsubishi's unimpressive form continued as Stephane Peterhansel suffered a burned out clutch and eventually arrived in 10th place, some 25 minutes behind Schlesser.

Peterhansel's team-mates fared little better. Hiroshi Masuoka came in sixth while last year's winner, Luc Alphand, was one place further back in seventh.

The highest-placed Mitsubishi was that of fourth-placed Nani Roma, who also leads the Japanese marque's charge in the overall rankings, again in fourth place.

Elsewhere, BMW's Jutta Kleinschmidt again suffered more than her fair share of bad luck.

Hot on the heels of electrical problems and a small fire during the previous special stages, the 2001 winner again hit trouble - this time clutch-related - to leave her languishing in 25th place overall.

The highest BMW runner is Guerlain Chicherit, who sits eighth after four stages.

Repsol KTM's Marc Coma, who won the motorbike category last year without winning an individual stage, claimed his second win in as many days as he powered to the top of the two-wheeled standings.

"It's been an important day from an overall victory point of view," said Coma. "I started out without taking any real risks, but by the time I got to the supply point, I realised that I had opened a big lead.

"I reckoned that the others must have been left behind, so I decided to accelerate since it seemed to be a really good opportunity to put a lot of distance between us."

Spaniard Coma finished 12 minutes clear of compatriot Isidre Esteve, who slips to second overall, while Cyril Despres, riding the Gauloises KTM, finished third to improve to an outright sixth place as the Frenchman bids to recover from a torrid third stage blighted by gearbox failure. Today's stage will again take place in Morocco, with a 325km special from Ouarzazate to Tan Tan.