Stéphane Peterhansel

He repeated the feat in 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1998 before switching from two to four wheels. After contesting a number of ice races, he made his Dakar debut in a car in 1999 and finished seventh overall. The following year saw him finish second in a Mega Special with a Mitsubishi engine and, on the 2001 event, he took the top prize in the T1 category. Peterhansel finished first overall on the 2002 Rallye de Tunisie and went on to give the Mitsubishi Pajero* Evolution a winning debut on the 2002 UAE Desert Challenge.

He repeated the feat in 2003, but eventually finished third in the Dakar after losing a potential victory on the penultimate stage in Egypt. 2004 was his most successful season to date in a car. Stéphane took his maiden win on the Dakar to follow Hubert Auriol into the record books as only the second driver to win the event on both two and four wheels. He also finished first in Tunisia and Morocco, before adding to his growing list of achievements with a second consecutive Dakar win with Mitsubishi in January 2005. Stéphane finished second overall on the 2005 Patagonia-Atacama Rally at the wheel of an MPR10 version of the Pajero* Evolution, but suffered cruel luck in both Morocco and on the Baja Espana with victory seemingly in his grasp. He then crushed the opposition on the 2005 UAE Desert Challenge to claim the event for the third time in four years, and followed that up with fourth overall on the 2006 Dakar after spending several days in the lead. He then secured Mitsubishi’s eighth victory on the Rallye de Tunisie in April 2006 and was leading June’s Rallye du Maroc before the team was withdrawn from the event.

After taking part in the two test sessions in Morocco with the latest MPR13, Stéphane tackled the 2006 UAE Desert Challenge as a final shakedown for the 2007 Dakar Rally and finish second behind team-mate Luc Alphand. Continuing his winning record, the Frenchman went on to collect his third Dakar success on four wheels in January 2007 before taking victory on July’s Baja Espana, as well as on the UAE Desert Challenge which rounded off the year’s FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup.

The 2008 season began with the disappointment of the cancelled Dakar, but then the preparations for the 2009 edition began very soon afterwards. In March Peterhansel showed his great talents in the Central Europe Rally, where after seven days of competition and with several drivers separated by very small differences, he finished in second position, with the victory getting away from him after he committed a small mistake on the final special section. The next date was in May, in the Rally Transiberico. There he lost an hour after going off the track on the second stage, and he fell back to fifth position overall.

After summer began in Morrocco the tests in the all new turbo-diesel Mitsubishi Racing Lancer, the one that the Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart Team will take to the Dakar 2009. Training was interrupted in the middle of September for the PAX Rally, and Peterhansel got an important victory. In fact he fought once again with Carlos Sainz, as they had done in the Central Europe Rally, and the Repsol driver got the victory in an exciting final stage, which he won with just a few seconds to spare.

After the latest training sessions in the Racing Lancer, Peterhansel was chosen to be the driver in its competition debut. He did a great job in an the Baja Portalegre. Peterhansel`s victory in Portugal, at the wheel of the car he will drive in the Dakar 2009, confirmed that a lot of good work had been carried out during the whole year and allows him to see the change in continent more than aware of the potential that the Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart possesses, with vehicles and drivers performing at an exceptional level.