The drivers in the Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart, Nani Roma & Lucas Cruz, survived what should have been the longest and toughest in the Dakar 2009. The Spanish pair finished the 670km loop in the Atacama desert in fifth place, after it was shortened to 476km by the organisers, and the two stay fourth in the overall.
The Mitsubishi mechanics checked Roma`s car thoroughly to find what had made it overheat on the ninth leg, finally deciding it was the ventilator. Roma crossed the first, third, fourth and fifth controls in sixth position, before crossing the finishing line right by the bivouac, where hundreds of people; team members, the press and spectators, were watching the outcome of the special from the top of a giant sand dune.
The American Robbie Gordon set the second fastest time on the special and closed the gap on Roma in the overall to 21 minutes 25 seconds. Carlos Sainz, who won another stage, continues to control the race, with a lead of 27 minutes 31 seconds over his teammate Mark Miller. The ASO allowed 312 teams to start the loop toaday: 142 motorbikes and quads, 109 cars and 61 trucks.
Low cloud and sea mist meant that the start of the leg had to be delayed, it had also been shortened the night before, from 670km to 476km, as part of the terrain was too soft and the ASO preferred that the teams had more time to get through the difficult zones of dunes they were going to tackle.
The fog persisted and that meant the security helicopters could not take off, meaning that the officials in the ASO were obliged to delay the start by 2 hours 40 minutes.
The organisers have also cancelled Wednesday`s special, even so the Dakar caravan will have to travel at a height 4 250 metres on a liaison before crossing into Argentina and reaching the next stop in La Rioja. The winding track crosses the Paso San Francisco at 4 700 metres. The liaison climbs along twisty tracks across the Claudio Gay mountain chain towards Hostería Murray, before arriving at Las Grutas and descending to Chaschuil via Cortaderos and then Fiambalá in the province of Catamarca, at a height of 1 520 metres above sea level.
Dominique Serieys, Team Director
Nani is driving very well and has made no mistakes. We had some troubles that have put him back, but we are getting more feedback about diesel technology every day. We are on a good pace now and will try and give him a better car each day. The target is still a podium. Robbie (Gordon) is still pushing and it is good for the rally that another private team is coming into the fight.”
Nani Roma >> Audio
“I am happy to be here. If they make the original road book about 670km, you know it is going to be tough. The engine mapping could have been better in the power stakes, but we never stopped and we made the kilometers to reach the finish. I am not watching the leader board now. If we cannot take a podium, then fourth or fifth is the same to me. It is just a case of doing our jobs and keeping going over the last few days.”
Lucas Cruz
“It was obviously a hard stage. There were a lot of areas of camel grass and that made it tough. We struggled a little. I stopped on one occasion to take some air out of the tires, because the sand is very soft. The road book was not so good today. One modification was totally opposite to the real direction we had to take and we lost one or two kilometers.”
