In the end it was not meant to be. A mistake by Peterhansel, which the winner of three editions of the Dakar himself confessed to, landed the Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart driver in a final second position, and the victory of the Central Europe Rally, the first of the Dakar Series, went to Carlos Sainz and his Volkswagen Touareg.
Today put an end to a rally which will be remembered by many as a brilliant and exciting race where the two finest drivers in rally racing fought for the victory. Peterhansel and Sainz reached the last special in the Central Europe Rally with a tiny difference of just 18 seconds, after a total of 10 hours of timed racing. Last night must have been a very long night for these two drivers, who were aware of the fast pace they were setting in their struggle for the final victory, a pace that only Alphand, Roma and Depping have been capable of keeping up with until yesterday morning. However, Sainz´s victory did not outshine the incredible performance by the Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart driver, who measured himself up against the World WRC Rally Champion right up to the last. Peterhansel´s mistake today prevented the Frenchman from disputing the last special with Sainz almost from the start. The Freenchman knew well that today´s special was the same as yesterday´s, though in the opposite direction. However, there was a small change that he was unaware of: today´s special did not run through a forest which was the last part of yesterday´s special, prior to a long straight leading to the finish line. With the idea of attacking right from the beginning of the special in mind, when he reached the end of the straight, Peterhansel turned left into the forest, while co-pilot soon pointed out his mistake. The pair, realising that they were unable to turn around due to the narrow road, decided to continue and retake the proper route a little further ahead. The result: almost a minute lost. After this, Peterhansel chose to complete the rest of the special at a fast pace, but without risking a possible accident trying to scrape a few seconds. A minute´s disadvantage, with Sainz in the lead, was too much to try and make a comeback. Finally, Peterhansel finished fourth in the special and second in the general classification, 2 minutes 1 second behind the winner after over 11 hours of timed racing. Peterhansel´s teammate and fellow countryman in the Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart, Luc Alphand, was finally unable to climb to third position in his struggle with Depping. Alphand, who tried his best until the last kilometre, finished the special in third position right behind Depping in his Volkswagen, taking a final fourth place in the general classification of the Central Europe Rally. Nani Roma, who was back in the test today, raced the sixth fastest time in the special, though yesterday´s five-hour penalty after his withdrawal have made him drop very far down in the general classification. Roma took the opportunity today to carry out further testing on the suspension and trying out different setups and adjustments to the normal ones. What is more, the Repsol driver had specific orders not to take any unnecessary risks, as he did not stand to win anything. In the motorcycling category, Jordi Villadoms secured a final sixth position for himself in the Central Europe Rally. Today he raced the fourth fastest time in a special where he went out to secure his position in the general classification. The Repsol KTM Team rider was satisfied after a rather complicated start to the rally and the difficult terrain he found during the first few days, which he admitted prevented him from riding comfortably.Stéphane Peterhansel >> Audio This morning I thought it was going to be the exact same special as yesterday, and I was totally concentrated on taking the exact same route. Yesterday we drove through a forest at a certain point, and today the organisation decided not to include this section. Jean Paul, my co-pilot, told me to carry on straight, but I didn´t hear him and followed the same route as yesterday. I lost a minute in that forest, and conceding that to time to Carlos Sainz, I reckoned it was too dangerous to try and attack to recover the lost time. So I thought it wasn´t a good idea to risk the car and even risk losing second position, and decided to make do with that place.Luc Alphand >> Audio It´s a shame because in the end we finished in fourth place and we´re not up on the podium. That´s the way it goes. It was a real battle throughout the whole week. We were in front in the first CP. We fought hard and really tried to get the most out of the car. We didn´t make any navigation errors. It´s a shame, but that´s sport. We finished fourth, made it to the finish line with the car in one piece, and spent a good week here where we learned a lot. The pace here has been very fast, and I´ve made good progress. The rest is sport.Nani Roma >> Audio Today was more difficult than we´d expected, because when you go out there without a clear goal in mind it´s hard to keep concentrated and avoid mistakes. But it was a productive day, we tried out a few different adjustments to the suspension and collected some very interesting information. As for a global assessment of the test, I think this race was different, tough and complicated. I hadn´t competed in that car for several months, and the truth is that I found it hard to get into the race, because apart from my insufficient pace, my son Marc was born just when I arrived here; I was not by my wife´s side and I haven´t met my son yet. I´d never raced in this car under conditions like we had the first few days, with so much water, rain and mud, but I learned a lot and overall it´s been very positive. I´ve seen that I´m capable of driving very fast, and until I had the mechanical problem, I was very close to Sainz and teammate Peterhansel. Now we have to think about the next test in Portugal, where I´ll be racing in the diesel-powered Mitsubishi MPR14.Jordi Viladoms >> Audio Overall this has been a very positive race. The conditions were a bit different to what we´re used to, on difficult terrain with a lot of mud and stones, without hardly any navigation, because everything was well indicated. In any case, racing that amount of kilometres has done me good, because it´s what I have to work on. We´ve finished a tough race; this gives me confidence and will help me build up a faster pace in future races.Dominique Serieys, Team Manager Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart >> Audio Today, after seven days of racing, we are very satisfied. It might seem strange, because we didn´t win, but in any case, we´ve done a good rally. There was fierce rivalry, with very small differences between the first five or six drivers; no greater than four or five minutes. There were very competitve rivals who were driving at an incredible speed in the specials. I´m very satisfied with Stéphane Peterhansel´s and Jean Paul Cottret´s performance. Unfortunately, other drivers such as Nani Roma with Lucas Cruz, and Hiroshi Masuoka with Pascal Maimon, were unable to secure their good positions. Nani, from my point of view, has raced one of his best rallies. He is progressing very well and is confident. Luc Alphand also ran a good rally, with a tough struggle for third and fourth position, which he finished with just a few second´s difference. We´ve started with the diesel project. I think it´s quite daring, and during the first few days with Masuoka and Maimon, we saw that it´s performance is promising. The Transiberian Rally kicks off in three weeks time, where Alphand, Peterhansel and Roma will be competing, the latter in a diesel-powered car for the first time. So we´re soon going back to France to prepare for this new challenge. This Central Europe Rally has been a very intense week, with a strong presence of the media, in a totally different climate and with a very tough route. So we can be happy that our four cars are still here, because though they did not all make it to the finish line, they are in good condition.
