The sixth stage of the 2009 Dakar Rally between San Rafaël and Mendoza was a day that the Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart would rather forget, after co-driver Pilles Picard was taken ill on the special stage and forced the immediate retirement of his driver Luc Alphand from the race.
Teammates Stephane Peterhansel and Joan ‘Nani’ Roma finished the stage with the fifth and sixth fastest times, and now hold sixth and fifth in the overall standings respectively but they face an uphill struggle to regain the lost time over the next few days.
Today’s special stage was originally shortened from 394km to 232km and then to 178km because of the risk of standing water caused by recent rainfall. Event officials sent a vehicle into the stage on Wednesday to monitor a river crossing which was already 80cm high and the decision was taken to skip the section on safety grounds.
Mitsubishi’s mechanics finally completed the work on Peterhansel’s and Jean-Paul Cottret’s ‘Racing Lancer’ just before the pair were scheduled to leave the bivouac and head into the liaison section to the sixth stage to Mendoza.
Peterhansel had incurred a 15-minute penalty in San Rafaël on Wednesday evening for missing a time control. He eventually set the fifth fastest time.
Luc Alphand (France) was forced to withdraw from the Dakar Rally 12km after the start of the stage this morning, when co-driver Gilles Picard was taken ill assisting Alphand in putting plates under a wheel when they were stuck in the mud. As a precaution he was airlifted to the bivouac in San Rafaël for medical checks, but Alphand was unable to continue. Picard then underwent an electro-cardiogram test and everything was normal.
Joan ‘Nani’ Roma and Lucas Cruz Senra held sixth position through the opening passage control and maintained his position to the finish.
Stéphane Peterhansel
“The mechanics did a fantastic job to get my car ready for this morning. I really thought the rally was over yesterday after the accident. We are now in fifth position, but ‘Nani’ and I are some way behind the leaders. It will not be easy at all to catch them. There are some long and difficult stages to come, but it is a case of finding where we can, perhaps, make up some of the time.”
Nani Roma
“Every day is difficult. Today we lost another car, but the main thing is the health of Gilles. I know when I have lost a race after an accident your head spins a lot, but the most important thing is the safety of our team. I try every day to go for the win, but 30 minutes is a long time. I will try and push a little, but we will have to see over the next few days.”
