MITSUBISHI LEADS THE DAKAR GOING INTO AFRICA
author: Leon Botha
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Mitsubishi release
Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel (Mitsubishi n°203)
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After finishing third behind Gregoire De Mevius (BMW)and the stage winners, Giniel de Villiers and Francois Jordaan in the 3rd special of the Dakar yesterday (3rd Jan) the Mitsubishi team of Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret are leading the Dakar going into Africa.
Despite finishing 5th of last year’s edition, third stage winner Giniel De Villiers (Nissan n°208) had never clinched a special on the rally. Castellon will be a place he’ll remember for his record book as being the first… and certainly not last of his Dakar triumphs. ”I’m really happy. It’s great to win a special on the Dakar, especially the first one for me. This victory is kind of a compensation after yesterday’s incident.”
The South African managed the winning time of 6min22 a day after rolling and damaging his car in the Narbonne special.
Second position for the stage went to Gregoire De Mevius (BMW n°212), just 4sec adrift. The Belgian finishes just ahead of Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel (Mitsubishi n°203) who takes the leadership of the overall (already !) ahead of Servia (Schlesser Ford n°209), 10th on the day.
Fourth of the special was Hiroshi Masuoka (Mitsubishi n°201) in the same time as Luc Alphand (BMW n°207). Scotsman Colin McRae (Nissan n°202) continued his apprenticeship on the Dakar with a seventh place today (at 11sec from team mate De Villiers). The 1995 WRC World champion finishes the European stages with the leading position overall, amongst the Nissan drivers, joint 7th at 1min24. Ari Vatanen in yet another Nissan finished 14th today to take 9th overall position.
Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret lead Josep-Maria Servia by five seconds.
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Mitsubishi release
Hiroshi Masuoka Pajero Evolution
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Team-mates "Miki" Biasion and Hiroshi Masuoka hold station in fifth and sixth positions respectively, while Germany’s Andrea Mayer has climbed from an overnight 15th to 12th.
The Volkswagen works drivers Jutta Kleinschmidt/Fabrizia Pons and Bruno Saby/Matthew Stevenson were noticeably at home on the first sand stage of the Dakar Rally. On the beach of the Spanish coastal town of Castellón, Jutta Kleinschmidt set, with 6 minutes 45 seconds, the eleventh quickest time in the Volkswagen Race-Touareg and improved her overall position by three places to 27th place. Her French team colleague Bruno Saby logged 18th place on the nine kilometre long stage and therefore improved two places to sixteenth position. For the drivers, the final European stage finishes this evening after the 852 kilometre trek to Tangiers in Morocco. After which the first 2024 kilometres of the Dakar Rally will be complete, of which only 35.5 kilometres have been driven against the clock. In Africa, a total of 9,322 kilometres are on the agenda to 18 January.
Jutta Kleinschmidt (#204)
“Sand at last! I felt really comfortable straight away. That was the first foretaste of Africa. The course was already a little rutted and I even had to overtake a competitor. All things considered, the result is absolutely okay.”
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"Sand at last" Jutta Kleinschmidt VW Touareg in SS3
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Bruno Saby (#224)
“I have now finally driven the Race-Touareg on a sand stage. The car handled very well. The huge amount of spectators was simply fantastic. A beautiful finish to the European section.”
THE NISSAN TEAM
The Spanish spectators flocked to line the route of the special stage, laid out on the Castellon beach. Over this nine-kilometre timed stage, the Nissan Pickup driven by Giniel de Villiers proved to be the fastest.
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Nissan Motorsport Release
Giniel de Villiers Proudly SA Nissan Hardbody
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In order to forget his misadventures of the day before, the South African driver was keen to put in a good performance. Relieved to have finished the European part of the event, he is already concentrating on the rest of the route, and the real start of the race in Africa :"I am satisfied with today's result. As it turns out, despite yesterday's minor crash, I have not lost too much time in Europe. But the serious business will soon get underway …"
Colin McRae, still as calm as ever, set the eighth-best time in the special stage, and is now eighth in the overall classification, the first of the official Nissan team : "My team-mates are giving me plenty of advice concerning the African special stages, and are trying to make sure I am as prepared as possible, as it will all be new to me. The most difficult aspect will undoubtedly be the length of the stages. But now I am really impatient to get there."
Ari Vatanen was as relaxed as usual, and talked about today's stage with a big smile on his face : "I decided not to win the Dakar here !!! We drove quite calmly. We had no problems with the car. I am still very careful. I am confident for the rest of the event, but I am remaining 'modest', as too much confidence in Africa can lead to mistakes."
Yoshio Ikemachi listened closely to the advice given by his navigator Thierry Delli Zotti and, drove calmly, finishing 2:21 behind the leader with his Nissan Patrol. The Japanese driver, still as attentive and hardworking as always, knows that there are thousands of kilometres still to be covered, and that anything can happen.
After this nine-km warm-up, all the competitors set off for the 850 km liaison section across Spain, before reaching Algésiras and crossing the Straits of Gibraltar. The day's final destination is Tangier, where the weather is much milder than is Europe. They have been eagerly awaiting that for a number of days, and this evening, the Dakar has a decided African feel.
QATAR’S AL-ATTIYAH MAINTAINS SEVENTH, FIRST OF THE RALLIART CUSTOMERS
Thirteenth position in today’s competitive section was a fine result for Dakar rookie Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and the Qatari maintains seventh position in his Pajero / Montero, equal with McRae in the overall standings.
Klever Kolberg is second of the Mitsubishi Ralliart customer drivers, the Brazilian claiming 32nd in the section to hold 18th overall in his Pajero / Montero. Just four seconds adrift, in 19th position, is team-mate Dominique Housieaux while Nicolas Misslin, a Mitsubishi privateer driver, has climbed to 21st overall after setting the 15th fastest time in the stage.
Equal 25th position is held by Ralliart drivers José-Luis Monterde and Poland’s Lukasz Komornicki, both driving similar Pajero / Montero machinery.
Thailand’s Pornsawan Siriwattanakun lies in 31st position while China’s Luo Ding and French co-driver Serge Henninot, 57th, enjoyed their first taste of competitive action on the beach in Castellón today.
FRETIGNE AGAIN in the Bike section
In the bike race, David Fretigne (Yamaha n°12), again, took advantage of his very “well balanced” two wheel drive machine to set the fastest time and also take the overall lead in the bike section. He leads Desres by 16 seconds, and 3rd placed Sala by 1m06s.
It is early days but this gap simply seems too big for the other teams not to be very worried about the two wheel drive Yamaha.
Today’s 4th stage should give everybody a better indication as the bikes will reach higher top speeds than in the tight stages so far.
South Africa’s Alfie Cox is lying in a fine 8th position overall and we are not too worried about the “Iron man” – he will start getting under their tail lights as soon as conditions really get tough.
THE TRUCK SECTION
In the truck race, the first special of this edition, after yesterday’s cancellation, saw the first of many battles between the favourites. Round 1 went to Gerardus De Rooy (DAF n°417). The young Dutchman beat his father Johannes (DAF n°411) by 7sec. Third was last year’s rally winner Vladimir Tchaguine (Kamaz n°414).
South Africa team of Hannes Grobler/Mike Griffith and Peter Woods in the Renault are currently lying in 30th position overall trailing the leaders by only 2m30s. The gap can be very misleading as conditions became quite difficult in SS3 yesterday with the sand getting loser and more difficult to get through as the day went on.
RallyStar® readers will remember last year when Hannes managed to improve his position continuously until he had to tow the vehicle of Nissan driver Kenjiro Shinozuka to the finish of the stage after the latter had a huge accident.
So, let’s hope for the best in Africa for Hannes this year.
Today (4th Jan 2004) the teams will have to cover another 233 km to reach the start of the 75-km special stage, on a fast track close to Rabat. This will be followed by 444 km of liaison before reaching Er Rachidia.
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