De Villiers was involved in two separate incidents in the opening two stages of the rally-raid in Saudi Arabia, leaving him out of battle for outright honours.
The South African was given a five-minute time penalty for the first offence involving Chile’s Cesar Zumaran in Stage 1, before having five hours added to his total time for a second incident the following day.
De Villiers ran into Moroccan rider Mohamedsaid Aoulad Ali coming down a dune and, although he was able to avoid the competitor, he ran over his Morocco Racing Team KTM bike and left it unusable.
Following the incident, the 49-year-old offered to compensate the motorcyclist for the damage to the bike as well as pay his registration fee for 2023.
That seemed to be the end of the matter for de Villiers, but the FIA stewards reopened the case on Friday after Toyota presented new evidence related to the incident.
“Significant and relevant new evidence has been provided by Toyota Gazoo Racing that was not available at the…
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