SPORTS : Vatanen Wins 4th Desert Rally

Ari Vatanen of Finland, driving a Citroen, wrapped up his fourth Paris-Dakar Rally championship today, completing a dominating performance in the 5,709-mile event.

Stephane Peterhansel on a Yamaha topped the motorcycle division.

The rally started Dec. 29 from Vincennes, near Paris, with more than 400 drivers. Only about 180 competitors were able to complete the trek across the desert of five African countries.

Vatanen kept his Citroen ZX in a comfortable lead most of the way. He led by as much as four hours and wound up beating the Mitsubishi of Pierre Lartigue of France by two hours, 42 minutes, 27 seconds. Frenchman Jean-Pierre Fontenay, in another Mitsubishi, was third.