As expected, the navigators had plenty of work today. A few 'gardening sessions' which could have had serious consequences. The Team GALP ENERGIA crew was not totally spared from this maze of trails, and lost around thirty minutes. Nothing too serious, as Carlos Sousa is holding on firmly to his 7th place overall.

The Portuguese driver thought that he would be able to set a good time today, over a stage particularly favourable to the Pickup. However, the navigational traps decided otherwise, and Carlos lost around 30 minutes to Guerlain Chicherit, winner of the day.

" Today, we were aiming to set the fastest stage time, over terrain which suited us well. Unfortunately, we had a small navigational problem. We didn't expect it, but it happened. I'm a bit disappointed, it's a great shame."

Jean Marie Lurquin was also a bit disappointed, but it was more the circumstances than the facts that bothered him.

" We got a bit lost coming out of a village, just like Roma, Peterhansel, Sainz and plenty of others. WE lost around 30 minutes before back-tracking and finding the right route, when we noticed, at that place, one of the organisation's medical cars was showing the other competitors the right direction."

Yesterday, we left Benoît Rousselot somewhere between Labé and Tambacounda in Senegal, 7km from the finish line, where, along with his navigator Sylvain Poncet, he was trying to repair his vehicle after having torn off a wheel. In the early hours of the morning, Benoît reached the bivouac, and told us about his crazy day and difficult night.

" First of all, I have to thank all the competitors, both cars and tracks, who pulled us over the seven or eight kilometres to the finish line, which was really not that easy with our broken wheel. Bit by bit, we finished the stage. Once we reached the end of the timed sector, we started to dismantle everything while waiting for the T4 service truck. This arrived very late, as it had spent a lot of time helping René Metge, who had a starter engine failure. The truck arrived at around one thirty in the morning, and after we repaired it, and covered the 200 km of liaison, we reached Tambacounda at four o'clock in the morning. While the mechanics serviced the car - and I would really like to thank them for their bravery - I was able to get two hours sleep, before leaving for the day's stage…. I would also like to thank my co-driver, Sylvain Poncet, a real gentleman, self-effacing but very efficient.

Overall, this last week of the Dakar was very tiring, both physically and mentally. I found this edition harder than the previous one, despite that being my first rally-raid experience.

We had quite a few small technical problems, which lost us time. This frustration meant that we wanted to push even harder, which caused other problems : it is a vicious, desperate.

From the time we broke our front axle joint, we could not hope to win the Production category. Despite everything, the Dakar is still a huge adventure, which always pushes you to get the very most out of yourself. "


Tomorrow, the final stage around the Rose Lake will be neutralised. The competitors will cover the planned route, but without any timing. This decision was taken further to the two fatal accidents which have taken place on the rally's route during these past few days, during which two children died.

There are no more changes to be made to the classification, but it is still necessary to cross the finish line, and no-one can be totally safe from mechanical problems of any kind.