Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports News
2005 Dakar Rally
Leg 8: Tichit – Tidjikja
Sp?ciale : 520 km, Liaison: 18 kms
Weather conditions: warm and windy (sandstorms and poor visibility) 16-24 C
For immediate release
Friday, January 7th, 2005
MITSUBISHI MOTORS REPSOL ATS STUDIOS TEAM LEADS DAKAR RALLY INTO TIDJIKJA ON ROAD LIAISON STAGE
Peterhansel and Alphand lead Dakar Rally into Tidjikja
Tichit to Tidjikja stage cancelled by event organizers
TIDJIKJA, Mauritania – The Mitsubishi Motors Repsol ATS Studios Team held first a and second positions in the overall standings on the road liaison run into Tidfjikja today (Friday), after the event organizers decided to cancel the day’s competitive action on safety grounds.
At 08.00 hrs on Friday morning, a mere 53 cars had arrived at the windswept bivouac in Tichit. The remainder were stranded in sand dunes and remote desert terrain, where they had spent the night under the stars. Many, including Mitsubishi’s Andrea Mayer, had run out of fuel near the finish and been forced to wait for assistance.
Frenchman St?phane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret led the Dakar Rally outright, after setting the fastest time on the punishing special stage into Tichit, but St?phane agreed wit the decision to cancel the day’s stage.
~For us the position will still be the same, so it is not a major problem,~ said Peterhansel. ~But there are many teams still stuck in the dunes and in the sand and, if the organizers want to have a rally, Many cars ran out of fuel. Jean-Paul and I knew we could have a potential fuel problem, so we reduced the pressure in the tires and I eased off the accelerator pedal to make sure we made it. Some parts of the stage were very slow and cars used more fuel.~
Frenchman Luc Alphand and co-driver Gilles Picard hold second position in the rally and were also in agreement with the decision. ~It is a decision which has been forced on the organizers and we must go along with that,~ said Alphand.
Japan’s Hiroshi Masuoka and German co-driver Andreas Schulz were disappointed with the decision, after setting the fifth fastest time into Tichit on their climb back up the leaderboard.
~It would have been a great chance for us to make up even more time and move up the leaderboard,~ said Masuoka. ~The stage would have suited the Mitsubishi. Now we must wait until the stage into Atar to get back on track. A podium finish is still possible.~
Germany’s Andrea Mayer and French co-driver Jean-Michel Polato arrived at the Tichit bivouac at 01.00 hrs, after running out of fuel six kilometers from the stage finish.
~There was nothing we could do,~ said Mayer. ~We just had to wait for a truck to arrive. But there were no trucks and we had to sit there as long as we did until someone came passed and gave us fuel.~
Spaniard Joan Roma and co-driver Henri Magne leapt to sixth place in the overall standings after the stage into Tichit.
~I was pleased to make it into Tichit as one of the leading cars,~ said Roma. ~The road book was very hard to follow. I felt sure that it had been written from satellite photographs and not from a car, because the stage was so difficult. It would have been difficult on a bike.~
Tomorrow (Satuday) the route heads west towards the half-point at Atar, the largest town in the Chinguetti tribal region of Mauritania, which has been a regular rest day venue for the Dakar Rally in recent seasons. After a three-kilometer liaison, teams tackle a 361 kms special stage, before a short liaison brings them to the rest halt in Atar. The tiny air strip and surrounding area will play host to the traditional rally rest day, where several hundred media and VIPs will attend from Europe.
Ralliart Teams
Ralliart teams stranded in the dunes; Fuel problems for crews
Dominique Housieaux and Loic Fagot led the Mitsubishi Ralliart customers into the stage in 15th position, but were stranded without fuel at the second passage control into Tichit on Friday morning.
Brazilians Klever Kolberg and Rouldan Lourival had also hit fuel problems and the Russian team of Alexey Berkut and Anton Nikolaev also failed to make the arrival into Tichit.
Multiple Polish rally champion Krzysztof Holowczyc and his Belgian co-driver Jean-Marc Fortin were stranded 40 kms from Tichit without fuel on Friday morning, but there was disappointment for Chinese driver Guan Yuang Men and Swiss driver Anroln Meier, who were forced to retire from the race before Tichit. Meier had no problems with his car, but decided to withdraw from the race at the first passage control into Tichit.
Ends
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