Cordoba, Argentina - Volkswagen played it safe on Friday at the Dakar Rally as Giniel de Villiers retained his overall lead ahead of team-mate Mark Miller in the penultimate timed stage won by Nani Roma of Spain.

VW took no chances the day after its then leader Carlos Sainz of Spain had to retire after crashing into a ravine as they drove in a convoy for most of the stage.

Adverse weather hampered the competition again in the form of torrential rain and flooded roads as the timed session of the stage from La Rioja to Cordoba was cut from originally 545 kilometres to 220km.

The final timed session is on Saturday over 227km in Cordoba and the rally is completed with the traditional parade on Sunday, also in Buenos Aires.

Roma, driving a Mitsubishi, won the 13th stage in 2 hours 33 minutes 41 seconds from Poland's Krzysztof Holowczyk (Nissan) and Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit (BMW).

Miller finished 15 seconds ahead of De Villiers, but that was enough for the South African de Villiers to retain the overall lead by 2:20 minutes from the American Miller.

American Hummer driver Robby Gordon trails de Villiers by 1:28 hours which all but assures VW of its first victory at the race formerly held in Africa but moved to South America for the first time due to security concerns.

Meanwhile, Frenchman Cyril Despres got his fourth stage win in the motorbike category 1:23 minutes ahead of fellow-KTM rider Marc Coma, but remains second behind the
2006 champion from Spain with a big deficit of 1:28:03 hours. David Fretigne of France was third on the day and holds the same position overall on a Yamaha.

Coma is bidding for his second Dakar title following 2006 while Despres won in 2005 and 2007.

Friday's shortening of the stage was the eighth time that a stage did not go the full planned distance. The 11th stage in the Andres was even completely called off on Wednesday.

The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), in charge of the rally, said earlier Friday that 1,225km have been scrapped now. Of close to 500 vehicles that left Buenos Aires on January 3, only 208 remained in the race, ASO said ahead of Friday's stage.

But ASO has already hinted that the rally may return to South America in 2010, a move that would be very welcome by the host nations of Argentina and Chile. (dpa)