Stéphane Peterhansel`s victories in the two specials on the Saturday have taken the Repsol driver up to first position in the car category. Nani Roma stays in third place in spite of setting the same time as his team mate on the second…
Today`s stage was made up of two timed specials, one of 80km where the cars were first out, and another of 252km where the motorbikes started first. In the afternoon cars and motorbikes interchanged tracks to complete the 330km. The route was varied, with quite a few changes of rhythm where the car drivers and motorbike riders came across an unexpected guest on a race that is typically very dry and hot: mud. Rain fell during the night and gave the special in the morning some sections totally full of mud, but by the afternoon they had dried out.The toughest stage in this year`s edition of the Baja España Madrid–Aragón ended with Stéphane Peterhansel leading the classification in the car category. The Repsol driver won the two specials and got a lead of 47 seconds over Colin McRae. On the other hand Nani Roma had a puncture when passing over some stones on the short special held in the morning, this meant that he lost over three minutes. In the afternoon the Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart driver ended tied with his team mate and continues to hold third position in the general, but he is almost 4 minutes behind his French team mate.In motorbikes Marc Coma finished the day losing 3 minutes and 11 seconds in the general classification, after a day where he has has suffered quite a lot. Unlike other years in the morning the riders found muddy tracks after rain fell during the night, a situation that damaged the Repsol rider`s chances as he was riding a heavier bike. In the afternoon, just after the start of the stage, Coma began to have problems with his rear brake something that conditioned the majority of the special stage.The race finishes tomorrow with the final 252km, with all the competitors repeating one of the specials covered today.
