The tenth stage of the Rally of Tunisia has been marked by an accident in the car category, which has forced today’s special to be neutralised at the first check point and after just 134 kilometres. Under these circumstances, Marc Coma was the fastest of the day, closing the gap on the race leader, Cyril Despres, who is now at 3 minutes and 57 seconds, with just 154 kilometres of timed specials to go.
Third in today’s stage was Jordi Viladoms, who like his team mate found out at the first CP that the special had been provisionally postponed. After a two hour wait, during which time the rest of the participants arrived, the organisation announced that the thent stage had been definitively cancelled, and they all went in convoy to Tozeur, where the final special of the Rally will start and finish tomorrow. Today, Viladoms finished 2 minutes 22 seconds behind his team mate, and more importantly, 6 minutes and 27 seconds ahead of Chaleco López, his competitor for the third step of the podium. At the end of this day, this honour went to Viladoms, who must defend an advantage of exactly two minutes tomorrow, the time between the Repsol rider and his rival leaving.
This stage will consist of two timed loops of 81 and 73 kilometres, which will start and finish in Tozeur, where this second test of the Raid World Championship will end.
Marc Coma
“Today I left opening up the tracks and kept up a good pace from the beginning, which allowed me to pass the first sand dune area well and gradually open up the gap with Despres. I knew that distance was important, but I was prepared to reduce it as much as possible, and I managed to finish with a one minute advantage. The first part was through sand dunes to some old sand tracks, which were quite small and technical. Then, we went into a chott (dry lake) to the first CP. The difference continues to be significant, four minutes and just one short day, but you have to go fast and tomorrow, we will do our best to make sure we are not caught.”
Jordi Viladoms
“I am pleased with today’s stage because I left in front of “Chaleco” and in the few kilometres that we have done today, I have managed to catch him up and make up a few minutes. It was difficult, but it came out well and now tomorrow’s race is looking interesting, as he will leave after me and try to catch me. The part that we run was quite complicated because they were small dunes, but very soft, and then, fast tracks with sand spits that made us ride very carefully. It has been fast and dangerous, but went well to set differences, because navigation wasn’t easy either, with changes of course in the middle of the sand, which we overcame without any significant errors. Tomorrow we will try to maintain today’s level.”
