JOAN ROMA WINS THE 13 TH STAGE OF THE DAKAR RALLY

Joan Roma won the car race on the 13th stage of The Dakar rally on Friday which was shortened due to torrential overnight rain which made parts of the route impassable. The Spaniard won the race in his Mitsubishi by seven minutes 18 seconds from Poland's Krzysztof Holowczyc in Nissan, Guerlain Chicherit of France finished third in his BMW.

Volkswagen used a team strategy on the stage, oversll race leader Giniel De Villiers of South Africa and Mark Miller of The USA stopping to wait for their German team Mate Dieter Depping, before starting again. As a convoy to face the day's special stage all together. De Villiers finished in eight place, one Behind Miller, to retain a narrow two minutes 20 second overall lead going into the final stage.

The bike race was won by France's Cyril Despres, who finished ahead of overall leader Marc Coma of Spain in second place with France's David Fretigne coming home in third place. Coma leads the overall standings by one hour 28 minutes 3 seconds from Despres, with fretigne in third.