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'Inaccurate' 2017 Dakar Rally roadbook criticised

Inaccuracies in the Dakar Rally organisers' roadbook have caused most of the navigation problems that have hit the 2017 event, reckons '09 winner Giniel de Villiers.

The Toyota driver is among many frontrunners to have lost significant time in the first half of the rally after going off course and getting lost.

Competitors receive the next day's roadbook, which maps out the route, from the organisers each evening.

Dakar officials wanted to put a greater focus on navigation skills this year but de Villiers is not impressed with what has been supplied.

"They've made the navigation a bit more challenging, but I think the main factor has been the roadbook has not been very accurate," he told Autosport's sister title Motorsport.com.

"It's been quite bad up until now, and that's caused a lot of the confusion.

"Hopefully they can sort that out, because it needs to be more accurate for them to make the navigation difficult.

"Then the good guys that navigate well will still come out on top.

"At the moment, it is a bit like a lottery. It's not quite how it should be."

De Villiers will resume in eighth place on Monday when the rally restarts following a two-day gap caused by weather cancelling Saturday's stage and the traditional mid-event rest day on Sunday.

He is just over an hour off leader Stephane Peterhansel, who heads Sebastien Loeb and Cyril Despres in an all-Peugeot top three.

The Peugeot trio and team-mate Carlos Sainz, who crashed out in the first week, have all been delayed by varying degrees of navigation trouble during the opening stages.

Zdroj: autosport.com