De Villiers narrows gap, stays second
Giniel de Villiers finished fourth in the penultimate stage of the Dakar Rally in Chile on Friday, to head into the final day lying comfortably in second place overall.
The South African made up more than five minutes on Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel, but he remained 44 minutes behind the race leader in the standings.
He was 45 minutes clear of third-placed Russian Leonid Novitskiy after 13 stages of the two-week race.
Meanwhile, Sarel van Biljon continued his late fight, winning his second stage in the quads division.
Van Biljon had also won the eighth leg, to place himself in a podium position, but after a disastrous ninth stage he tumbled down the standings.
With one day left in the race, he was lying 21st, more than 15 hours behind Argentine leader Marcos Patronelli.
In the bikes division, Riaan van Niekerk was 19th for the stage, climbing back one place to 13th overall, and Darryl Curtis was 69th across the line, dropping one position to 30th.
Brett Cummings completed the leg in 29th place, and soared another seven spots to 43rd in the standings.
