MOTORSPORT: One up for Toyota in Dakar

Rookie from Saudi Arabia breaks through on eighth day
A Toyota Hilux has ended the dominance of the MINIs on the Dakar Rally in South America, winning the stage before the rest day in the two-week marathon.

While Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah continues to lead in his X-Raid MINI as the field takes its break at Iquique in Chile, a Toyota is within 8½ minutes of him – that of South African Giniel De Villiers.

Another Toyota – driven by Saudi Arabia's Yazeed Al-Rajhi, a rookie on the Dakar – won the eighth stage of the event and is 18 minutes 40 seconds behind Al-Attiyah but 36 minutes ahead of the fourth-placed MINI, driven by Poland's Krzysztof Holowczyc.  

Back to the Dakar in a moment, but further to our mention here last Friday of New Zealand pushing for a return to the World Rally Championship calendar it seems the Kiwis have got a little ahead of themselves. However, while NZ driver Hayden Paddon is assured of a fairly full season in the WRC this year with Hyundai, the future is grim there for Aussie Chris Atkinson. More on all of that below too.

And Australian Grand Prix organisers and the world governing body of motorsport, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), are on a collision course with contradictory views regarding the start time of the Oz GP.

Official aerodynamic testing of Ford's final V8 Supercar, the FG X, is underway, while refinements to Nissan's Altima and Holden's VF Commodore are also being scrutinised this week. Volvo's S60 and the Erebus Motorsport E63 Mercedes are sticking with the shapes they have.

The DeltaWing sports car went home early from the 'Roar before the 24' at Daytona in Florida, battered and bruised after a heavy crash, but will be back for the Daytona 24-Hour in a fortnight. More on that, and the weekend's racing, later too.

Breather for Dakar cars after Toyota steals a stage from MINI
Cars in the Dakar Rally had a marathon two-day section in Bolivia and Chile before the rest day on which only drivers and co-drivers could work on the vehicles.

While Argentina's Orlando Terranova gave MINI its seventh straight stage victory of this year's event on Saturday, Saudi rookie Yazeed Al-Rajhi beat Terranova by 72 seconds on Sunday's stage between Uyuni in Bolivia and Iquique on the Chilean coast to move within 18 minutes of outright leader Nasser Al-Attiyah.

South African Giniel De Villiers, who is between the Middle East pair in the classifications, gained three minutes on Al-Attiyah over the past two days.

The Qatari is pacing himself as he seeks a repeat of his 2011 victory but suffered altitude sickness and had to stop three times to vomit as the field made its way up 3500 metres in Bolivia on stage seven.

"I had a terrible headache every time we went over a bump," said Al-Attiyah, whose time that day was only seventh fastest.

France's 11-time Dakar winner (six times on two wheels, five times on four) Stephane Peterhansel is now eighth in the best of the new diesel two-wheel-drive Peugeot 2008 DKRs – but still almost 1 hour 52 minutes behind Al-Attiyah.

Peterhansel said "hail for an hour, then some terrible storms with waves of water" on stage seven had made the course "a quagmire ... a nightmare".

"At one point I thought it would be absolutely impossible for us to get out of the stage," Peterhansel said. "With all of the mud it was very difficult for the two-wheel-drive cars. This stage is going to stick in my memory."

Peugeot Sport director Bruno Famin said the 2008 DKR had been shown to be "there or thereabouts, even in the worst conditions for us".

"We were aware when we built a two-wheel-drive car that traction would be an issue in particularly muddy or slippery places, but we stand by the concept," Famin said.

Australian Geoff Olholm was eliminated from the event last Friday when, with his vision blurred by dust, he crashed his Toyota Hilux into the bank of a dry river bed.

Olholm, of Cairns, had to be flown from the scene and is in hospital in Iquique with a broken L1 vertebrae and will be fitted with a body brace for the flight home to Australia in a few days.

He has said in a Facebook post that the crash "was like hitting a brick wall ... we came to a dead stop".

Olholm's door would not open and, in agony, he had to climb out the door of French co-driver Edouard Boulanger, who was not injured.

Czech-born Aussie Peter Jerie is running 50th in the event, driving another Toyota Hilux.

Adrian Di Lallo and Harry Suzuki were out of the rally on the morning of the fourth day, forbidden from restarting after having run over time in their Isuzu MU-X the previous day.

Australian rookie Toby Price is fifth outright in the bike category aboard a KTM. Price was second on the sixth stage and has had several other top-five stage finishes.

As soon as NZ driver Hayden Paddon's nine-event WRC deal with Hyundai for this season was announced in mid-December the chairman of Rally NZ, Peter Johnston, issued a media release saying the event would be back on the WRC calendar in 2016.

"The organisers of Rally NZ are excited at the prospect of having a Kiwi driver battling for outright honours on home soil when the WRC returns to NZ roads in 2016," that release said.

It said that alternating with Australia from 2008 until 2012 had been "an impractical year on, year off structure" and that Rally NZ organisers were "busy in planning for the event's return to its annual calendar slot in 2016".

"2016 Rally NZ will be a major international event on NZ's sporting calendar," it said.

"Rally NZ organisers are reviewing options for the event base, headquarters and service park ... with the aim of being able to announce further details in the new year [2015]".

Johnston was quoted saying "everyone is looking forward to WRC Rally NZ 2016".

We now learn that German company WRC Promoter, a joint venture between the Sportsman Media Group and Red Bull, has stated that Rally NZ is not locked in for the 2016 WRC calendar.

WRC Promoter told the doyen of rally correspondents, Martin Holmes: "After Rally NZ expressed an interest in returning to the WRC in 2016 WRC Promoter held fact-finding talks with the organisers. WRC Promoter has not made any agreements or promises to propose Rally NZ as a championship round in 2016 or later. Consequently, Rally NZ is not currently considered to be a round of the WRC in 2016. WRC Promoter will submit its proposed 2015 calendar to the FIA in accordance with the agreed processes in a timely manner during 2015."

Adrian Stafford, clerk of course at Rally Australia on NSW's Coffs Coast and acknowledged last year by the FIA as its "most outstanding motorsport official", has told Holmes: "I was not aware it was even possible for a deal or arrangement that guarantees a slot in the WRC calendar process for future years".

"We in Rally Australia will continue to take nothing for granted with future calendars and will be looking to present a very high standard event in [September] 2015 and thus hopefully make ours a compelling case [to remain in the championship in 2016]. Already we are in an even stronger position for our 2015 event and I am very confident we can build on all that was good in 2014 and then add some new elements," Stafford said.

While Kiwi driver Paddon is contracted by Hyundai for nine rounds of this year's WRC, after six last year, there is no word on any WRC outings with it for Australia's Chris Atkinson this year.

Atkinson did Rally Mexico and Rally Australia with Hyundai in one of its i20s last year but is said to be "still working on plans" for this year.

Frenchman Bryan Bouffier and Finn Juho Hanninen also had part-time gigs with Hyundai last season apart from the manufacturer's full-timer, Belgian Thierry Neuville, and its Spanish No. 2, Dani Sordo.

Autosport.com has reported that Hyundai "will stick with Neuville, Sordo and Paddon for most of its 2015 WRC rather than rotating drivers as it did last year".

Neuville and Sordo will drive for it in the opening round of the 13-event season, the Monte Carlo Rally on January 22-25, with Paddon as well at the second round in mid-February.

Autosport reported that Hyundai team boss Michel Nandan had said that a three-car line-up would then be standard for the rest of the year.

It has appeared for some time that Atkinson was out of a drive with Hyundai for the WRC. His options seem to be to continue driving a Volkswagen for Prodrive in China, which he did quietly but successfully last year, as well as perhaps branch out into rallycross – an interest he flagged late last year.

'Collision' on GP start only a matter of time
The 10-member panel that reported to the FIA on Jules Bianchi's crash at last October's Japanese GP, which has left the Frenchman with severe head injuries, recommended that Formula One races start at least four hours before sunset or dusk unless they are on circuits such as Singapore and Abu Dhabi's that have lights, as we reported last Friday.

Sunset in Melbourne on March 15, the day of the opening race in this year's world championship, will be at 7.40pm.

Under the recommendation of the Bianchi crash panel, headed by the president of the FIA's safety commission Peter Wright and including the vastly experienced and respected Ross Brawn, Stefano Domenicali, Emerson Fittipaldi and Alex Wurz, that would require a return to a 3.30pm start in Melbourne.

But Australian GP Corporation chief executive Andrew Westacott has told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper a 5pm start at the city's Albert Park temporary street circuit is set in stone.

"The race time will remain at 5pm as per agreement with the AGPC and Formula One Management, which means Melbourne, as the opening race of the season, airs in Asia at lunchtime and Europe at breakfast," Westacott told the paper.

However, an FIA bulletin of last December 3, the day the Bianchi crash report was made public, said its World Motor Sport Council "accepted the findings [of that report] and gave a mandate to implement the full recommendations and conclusions of the report".

Stand by for a collision between the AGPC and the FIA.

V8 Supercars working though some aero issues
The aerodynamics of the Ford FG X Falcons that Prodrive Racing Australia (previously Ford Performance Racing) and DJR Team Penske will race in the V8 Supercar Championship this year are being finalised in a week of testing at the RAAF base at Sale in Victoria.

The FG X is being run against a benchmark FG Falcon.

Refinements to Nissan's Altima and Holden's VF Commodore also are being scrutinised against the FG.

Volvo Polestar and Erebus Motorsport opted not to seek changes to the aerodynamics of their Volvo S60 and AMG Mercedes E63.

PRA will start the season with two FG Xs – for Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert – and DJR Team Penske one for Marcos Ambrose.

Daytona, Dubai and Formula E's demolition derby in Buenos Aires
The radical DeltaWing sports car crashed heavily at Daytona Speedway in Florida at the weekend.

Mexican driver Memo Rojas was not injured in the crash but the car could not continue at the 'Roar before the 24' three-day test session and was taken back to the DeltaWing's Georgia base to be repaired for the Daytona 24-Hour in a fortnight.

Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello topped the test in a Starworks Motorsport Riley-Dinan BMW in which one of his co-drivers in the 24-Hour will be New Zealander Brendon Hartley, who at other times is a Porsche driver with Mark Webber in the World Endurance Championship.

Last year's Indianapolis 500 winner, American Ryan Hunter-Reay, also will be in that Riley for the twice round the clock Daytona race.

The Aston Martin V12 Vantage in which Aussie James Davison is driving was 10th in the final session at the Roar, Ryan Briscoe's Chevrolet Corvette C7.R was 15th and Shane Van Gisbergen's Porsche 911 26th of 37 cars on the track.

Germany's Black Falcon team comfortably won the Dubai 24-Hour with one of its Mercedes SLS AMGs after the other, in which Bernd Schneider and Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen were among the drivers, crashed after four hours.

Another SLS fielded by Britain's Ram Racing was second in what was a race of attrition after 12 lead changes in the early hours.

All three of MARC Cars Australia's Focus V8s finished, two of them heading the SP2 class.

Australian Formula Three champion Simon Hodge did not get to race after the Porsche 991 in which he was entered crashed during qualifying.

Paraplegic Matt Speakman, of Sydney, and three similarly-handicapped Europeans finished 50th in a BMW M235i.

The first half of the fourth round of the Formula E all-electric open-wheeler series in Buenos Aires was processional and the second half chaotic.

Portuguese driver Antonio Felix da Costa emerged the winner for the Amlin Aguri team ahead of Frenchman Nicolas Prost, son of the great Alain, for e.dams-Renault and Nelson Piquet Junior, another son of a multiple F1 world champion, for China Racing.

Brazilian series leader Lucas di Grassi, Swiss Sebastien Buemi and Indian Karun Chandhok all had suspension failures while German Nick Heidfeld copped a drive-through penalty when he looked on course to win.

Di Grassi has 58 points in the championship, Englishman Sam Bird 48, Buemi 43, Prost 42, Piquet 37 and da Costa 29.

The next round is in Miami on March 14.