De Villiers penalized for knocking down a motorcyclist

Giniel de Villiers (Toyota) aurait préféré se montrer plus discret durant la première étape du Dakar 2021. Le Sud-Africain a en effet renversé le motard amateur Cesar Zumaran dans un passage étroit et sinueux, et avait continué son chemin après une pause de quelques secondes alors que le Chilien semblait sous le choc. Manque de chance, une équipe de télévision a filmé l’accident et la vidéo est devenue virale sur Internet :

📸 Cet accrochage est l'une des images du jour sur le # Dakar2022

💥 Percuté par Giniel de Villiers, le motard chilien Cesar Zumaran a pu reprendre la route.

Pour voir le résumé complet de la journée 👉 https://t.co/IcCvICxILM pic.twitter.com/fjvQw7Zl2x

- francetvsport (@francetvsport) January 2, 2022

It was necessary to wait 24 hours for the college of commissioners of the rally-raid decide to impose a penalty on the winner of the 2009 edition, co-driven by Dennis Murphy. The penalty is light: 5 minutes added to his second stage time. Enough to make him lose two places in the general classification (6th at 46'22'' from the leaders Al-Attiyah-Baumel).

Summoned by the commissioners, Giniel de Villiers defended himself as follows: “It happened in a trial section with sand and rocks. I was driving slowly and saw the biker standing on the left side of the path. A stone littered the sandy path, (rolling over it) I was pushed towards the biker and hit him.

I then backed away. As the biker stood up and waved his arm, I took it as a sign of good health, and that I could pass. I doubled it and I didn't want to stop again because the track was very sandy and I was afraid of getting stuck in the sand. »

However, the sporting regulations indicate that the crew had to “obligation to stop in order to confirm if the biker was not physically hit”. Fortunately, this was not the case and Cesar Zumaran resumed his journey, while specifying to the jury of commissioners that “ he was not satisfied with the behavior of car #207.”