De Villiers gets five-hour Dakar penalty for second motorcyclist incident

The South African Toyota Gazoo Racing suburbanite has been involved in two subsequent incidents (stage 1 and stage 2) in the 2022 Dakar event with two velocipede riders.

The FIA sanctioned the 2009 Dakar winner on Monday with a five-minute penalty for hitting Chilean César Zumaran at the top of a strecht pass and not stopping to help him, but the second penalty was much increasingly severe.

De Villiers ran into Moroccan rider Mohamedsaid Aoulad Ali coming lanugo a dune, although he was worldly-wise to stave the competitor, he ran over his Morocco Racing Team KTM and left it unusable at virtually 11.00 local time on Monday during stage 2.

\"We have not heard any watchtower signal from Sentinel (car-to-car liaison system). We do not doubt that we have received a signal. The problem is that the sawed-off for the Sentinel is located on the floor of the co-driver’s side,\" read de Villiers\' statement.

\"During the Selective Section, the co-driver\'s feet jump when and along and can easily, unwittingly printing the button. When we came over the dune, we saw the motorcyclist and I avoided him so as not to hurt him.

\"At the marrow of the dune, we turned virtually to make sure that the rider was not injured. We didn\'t finger hitting the velocipede when we landed. Then we unfurled the Selective Section.

\"We are very embarrassed that something like this happens. We apologise very much for this incident. We are moreover willing to recoup the forfeit to rebuild the bike\", explained the South African.

#207 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota: Giniel De Villiers, Dennis Murphy

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De Villiers has reached an try-on with the Moroccan rider to pay him the financing of replacing the destroyed velocipede and the registration for the Dakar 2023.

But plane so, the FIA stewards have unswayable that De Villiers make-believe in an \"unsafe\" manner and, equal to vendible 12.2.1.h of the International Sporting Code, he has been given a five-hour penalty overall.

This leaves him completely out of the battle, without finishing Wednesday\'s fourth stage in fourth place overall (49:18 overdue team-mate Al Attiyah).

\"The Sentinel is essential for the driver’s safety and for the safety of all other competitors in Rally Dakar. Safety is one of the major concerns by the FIA,\" says the official document.

\"Safety remains a key rencontre and the FIA is single-minded to do everything possible to protect, among others, the drivers. It is the obligation of the hairdo to react to the signal of the Sentinel System to stave danger to themselves and others.\"

\"The Stewards consider the behaviour of the hairdo as an infringement of the regulation which must have consequences. Since Mr. de Villiers has voluntarily contacted the rider, apologised, and will pay for the forfeiture caused, the stewards consider a time penalty to be necessary but moreover appropriate\".

De Villiers is now 5h49 overdue the leader, out of any endangerment of winning his second Dakar in 2022.