The chances of the Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart getting its eighth consecutive victory in the tough Dakar will be down solely to the Spaniards Nani Roma & Lucas Cruz, after the French pair Stéphane Peterhansel & Jean-Paul Cottret had to retire with engine problems on the seventh leg, close to Mendoza (Argentina).
Roma & Peterhansel started today`s leg behind a trio of Volkswagens, and so the team director Dominique Serieys, ordered his two pupils to attack this morning, with the intention of moving into the lead on the coming legs.
However Peterhansel´s turbo-charged Racing Lancer suffered a small fire during the stage and at km 114, the nine times winner of the Dakar had to retire because of engine problems before entering Chile across the Andes.
His teammate Roma, set the fourth best time of the day and stays in fourth position in the overall, although he is 29m 16s behind the leader, Carlos Sainz, as the participants are about to start the final week of racing; the final stage is on 18th January in Buenos Aires. Sainz has a nine second lead over his teammate, Giniel de Villiers from South Africa.
Before the toughest Dakar of the last 30 years entered the Andes for the first ever time today, Friday, the drivers had to pass a shortened special of 243km. through a zone of small dunes, a delicate region of fesh-fesh and a climb along twisty tracks. The leg, originally 419km long had to be shortened because of the recent storms and floods that had affected the foothills of the Andes.
Tomorrow, Saturday, is the traditional day of rest for the Dakar. The drivers will take advantage to regain their strength, and the mechanics to carry out repairs to the cars without having to keep an eye on the clock and having to finish their work quickly.
The day of rest will also mean the arrival of several guests, the media and VIPs from Europe, eager to enjoy the atmosphere of this unique event.
Dominique Serieys, team director
“Even when we entered scrutineering in Buenos Aires I was not sure what would happen. My feeling is clear. When we decided to enter the diesel category with the ‘Racing Lancer’, we knew that the project would be for the medium term – 2009-2011. When you see that Volkswagen and BMW have been at this project for six years to be where they are today, we can say that in the very short term period we have reached the performance, but there are still several areas where we need to work and improve. Since I took charge of the team in 2001, my focus has been to be competitive. ‘Nani’ is still in a good position and it is still possible for a competitor running alone to win the race. There is always only one winner. I hope he keeps a healthy car next week and we can take a podium finish or even a better place.”
Nani Roma >> Audio
“It is not easy for us now. It is a different situation every day.
Everybody is working for the win and pushing hard. The engineers and mechanics in Japan and France have worked really hard to know the engine. Today it is better. It was much better yesterday and I hope we can try to push through the second week. Okay, I don’t have a car for support, but I will try my best to take the best result possible.”
