Carlos Sousa watches and waits…

Today, Team Galp Energia was heading south, towards Tan Tan, the end point of the fifth leg. Carlos Sousa, with his Nissan Navara, set the 12th fastest time, and is now lying thirteenth in the overall classification. No punctures today, and a good pace, without any excesses. Before reaching Mauritania tomorrow, Team Galp Energia is serene.

Today's special stage saw alternating fast and rough passages. A typical timed stage for Morocco. Finished the stage in 12th position, Carlos Sousa and Jean Marie Lurquin preferred to look after their vehicle :

" This year, the Morocco stages are nothing like those we had last year. They are very rough, and hard on the vehicles, and I am rather surprised that the organisers chose such a difficult route to start the event. The teams which chose Morocco for their test sessions apparently are not having the same problems as us. Our Navara does not yet have the right suspension set-up, the car is still jumping a lot at the back, even if we have been able to make a few improvements. I am completely satisfied with the front suspension now, but we still need to adjust the rear. By the time we arrive in Guinea and Senegal, our car will be 100% efficient…
Concerning today's stage, we chose not to push, because there were a lot of rocky tracks, and we did not want to have any more punctures. And it paid off; we had a quiet day, without stopping at all during the special stage. OK, we are quite a bit behind the factory cars, but I think they have made a lot of progress, they were really on their favourite test ground…"

Concerning the Polish driver Krysztof Holowczyc and his Nissan Pickup, further to the fuel feed problems he encountered during the Moroccan special stage, the engine overheated quite a lot. The air-fuel mix was not rich enough. Yesterday, the engine was working very badly, and the pistons had been damaged. It would have been possible to repair the car, but with no guarantee that it would last. In agreement with the driver, André Dessoude decided to stop the Pickup in Ouarzazate.

Although Carlos Sousa is still working on the suspension settings of his Nissan Navara, and the car is beginning to work well, the Portuguese driver has realised that he cannot fight with the factory cars. His aim from now on will be to reach Dakar in a honourable position. It was also a good day for the two T2 Pathfinders of Benoît Rousselot and Paul Belmondo. Paul put in a fine stage, and Benoît was just behind him in the stage classification. They are racing as the 'boss' asked them to do. They are taking care of their cars, considering that assistance will be limited over the next two days.

Japanese driver Jun Mitsushashi and his Nissan Pickup once again managed a very good recovery today. The car is perfect, and he is doing good work. Jacky Dubois is keeping an eye on him. This experience will be very beneficial for Jun, no matter the result. Day after day he is gaining experience, which is vital for his future.

No serious problems for the two Team Zhengzhou Nissan Paladins, although Xu Lang had a small difficulty with a towing strap which pierced his radiator, but thanks to Fabian, who stopped the leak, they did not lose too much time.
Xu Lang/Fabian Lurquin : " Everything went well until the 250 km point, when coming out of a small palm grove, a biker braked hard in the fech-fech, and to avoid him, we got stuck. It was not easy to dig, as we were really in the dust. Luckily, our good Samaritan arrived, in the person of René Metge, who attached our strap to his Pathfinder. Unfortunately, when he pulled hard, the strap broke, and it came and punctured the radiator. We lost 40 minutes repairing it. But Xu Lang is still calm, he has really understood what the Dakar is all about. "

Marc Blazquez and Nacho Salvador, in the Nissan Spain Pickup, encountered their first problems since the start of the race. But nothing too worrying. This evening, they are 16th overall. The Spanish team has had an exemplary race so far : " We had a small worry with the clutch, which started to slip towards the end of the stage. We will change it this evening."

In the Tecnosport team, Andrej Ivanov with his Nissan Pathfinder, is continuing on his way. The Russian driver is keeping his sense of humour, no matter the circumstances : " During this stage, there were about fifteen metres of sand, and we got stuck in them ! It's really a shame, because we were going very well, and we'd overtaken a number of cars … and they all overtook us again. After that we had two punctures. In short, it was not our day. "Not a good day", as Shinozuka would say.. "

Benoît Rousselot did not start off this stage with all fires blazing, quite to the contrary. Calm and tranquil, he managed his day sensibly, and this evening, he is still in the lead of the Production category.

" Today, we respected our game plan perfectly. We wanted to take care both of our physical condition, and the vehicle. The aim was to leave Morocco with a fresh car, in perfect condition. So we drove 'cool', without taking any risks, without hassling other vehicles. Simon Jean-Joseph, one of our rivals in this category, took six minutes from us, but I'm sure he took a lot of risks. But that was his choice… We enjoyed ourselves less on this stage than on any of the others. We found ourselves in a little train, because of the dust which prevented us from overtaking. I looked after the gearbox and the transmission by running under powered. The proof is that we used the minimum amount of fuel. The aim was to look after the car. This evening, we feel we have done a good job, which is very pleasing, and which allows us to remain calm and serene. Reality has overtaken everything we imagined at the start. But we are not in Dakar yet…"


Tomorrow, the rally will be heading for Mauritania, including the crossing of the famous 'wall' which acts as the frontier between South Morocco and Mauritania. A special stage nearly 450 km on, over a route using wide tracks to start with, then over sand. The competitors will reach the Zouerat bivouac after a short 12 km liaison section.