Buenos Aires  - Qatari driver Nasser al-Attiyah recaptured the lead of the Dakar Rally Wednesday, after coming in fourth in a stage marked by tragedy after French motorcycle competitor Pascal Terry was found dead.

South African Giniel de Villiers won the stage, a 506-kilometre mountainous stretch between the Argentine cities of Neuquen and San Rafael.

De Villiers, driving a Volkswagen Touareg, beat the German Dieter Depping by 2 minutes and 18 seconds in the fifth stage of the famous race.

Buenos Aires  - An autopsy showed Wednesday that the French motorcyclist who was found dead while competing in the Dakar Rally had suffered a heart attack.

Pascal Terry had been found dead during the race in Argentina, the organizers said earlier Wednesday. The body of 49-year-old Pascal Terry was found about 15 metres from his bike around 300 metres from the route used during Sunday's second stage.

The Yamaha rider had gone missing during the stage between Santa Rosa and Puerto Madryn in the province of Chubut.

Buenos Aires  - Spaniard Carlos Sainz edged Qatari driver Nasser al-Attiyah by six seconds to win the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally on Tuesday.

Sainz, driving a Volkswagen Race Touareg, fought an exciting duel with BMW X3 driver al-Attiyah on the ascent to the 1,314-metre-high Col Calderon during the
484-kilometre stage from Jacobacci to Neuquen in Argentina.

Buenos Aires  - Qatari driver Nasseer al-Attiyah claimed the first stage of motorsport's Dakar Rally on Saturday, ahead of Spaniard Carlos Sainz, one of the pre-race favourites.

Al-Attiyah in a BMW X3 of the German X-Raid team finished the 371-kilometre stretch from Buenos Aires to Santa Rosa de la Pampa with a time of 2:36.15 hours.

He enjoyed a lead of 2 minutes 17 seconds over Sainz in a Volkswagen Touareg. VW also had South African driver Giniel de Villiers third, 2:40 back, and Mark Miller of the United States fourth, 4:21 behind al-Attiyah.

Mexico City - The son of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim dismissed a report that his father was interested in buying the Honda Formula One team for the symbolic price of 1 dollar, the daily newspaper Reforma reported Sunday.

Reforma said it had received a statement dismissing the story from Carlos Slim Domit, son of the billionaire and second richest man in the world.

The Italian newspaper La Stampa reported earlier Sunday that Slim would have to invest some 300 million euros (421 million dollars) to finance the team next season

Honda announced earlier this month it was pulling out of F1 because of the escalating crisis in the automobile industry.

Hamburg  - Williams will unveil its car for the 2009 Formula One season on January 19 in Portugal, the British team said on Thursday.

The rollout of the FW31 car with drivers Nico Rosberg of Germany and Kazuki Nakajima of Japan will take place on the Algarve Motor Park Circuit near the town of Portimao.

But the 2009 colours won't be unveiled until February 27, Williams said. The January rollout will see a car with a winter test painting.

The 2009 season starts on March 29 with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.