The stage between Siwa-Sitra Road was characterised by incidents and retirements. Unfortunately, both Benoît Rousselot and Serguey Sukhovenko were among the casualties. Both suffered accidents on broken dunes; the Frenchman at the 189-km point, and the Russian driver at the end of the route (the latter then being hit by another competitor). Both teams are shaken and are suffering from bad backs, but there were no serious injuries. The only good point of the day : a fine fifth place for Isabelle Patissier, who also improved to 8th place overall.

Yesterday evening, during the traditional briefing, the organisers explained that the route would be difficult, and, more importantly, that the second part of the stage had not been checked by the FIA openers. Not very reassuring news, especially as, since the start of the event, the navigators had been complaining about the quality of the road book.

Benoît Rousselot and Fabian Lurquin were the first to come to grief. Benoît hurt his back, and will have a medical checkup, but there is no cause for concern. As for Fabian, he is fine, and explained what had happened.
«We were driving at a good pace. Benoît was careful, and was slowing slightly at the top of each dune. It’s important to go over carefully, as you never know what the downhill section will be like. That’s the whole problem with broken dunes. So he slowed down at the top. The way down looked quite reasonable, but on the last part, there was an abrupt drop, quite steep. The vehicle took off, and fell down on the front axle, quite hard. I had my nose in my notes and didn’t have the time to be scared. The radiator was pierced and we broken the front left transmission. It was impossible to repair anything, we would have had to change the radiator. I feel OK, but Benoît hurt his back. He lay down on the sand, while I climbed up the dune to put my helmet there, to mark the danger. I let off the flare, and the medical helicopter came a bit later. They looked after Benoît, but he was not hurt apart from his back. Ronan Chabot and Gilles Pillot stopped to help us. That’s the end of the rally for us. A shame, we would have liked to get to the end…»

All hopes of scoring points towards the World Cup disappeared on this dune at the 189 km point. Just as they did, slightly later, for the unfortunate Serguey Sukhovenko, who went through an almost identical ordeal just before CP5, but one which could have had more serious consequences.

Serguey hit hard at the bottom of a dune, but a few seconds after this heavy landing, the Hungarian competitor Balazs Szalay, who was close behind, hit him from behind, turning the Russian’s car right around. Luckily, the Nissan team had not yet undone their seat belts… The two Russian drivers are a bit shaken, and are also suffering from bad backs.

A real black day, finishing with two retirements. The title quest is under threat. If Ronan Chabot finishes the event, he will win the Production category of the 2005 World Cup at the end of the Rally of the Pharaohs. However, if he retires, the result will not be known before Dubai.

The only good news of the day was the fifth place claimed by Isabelle Patissier on this particularly difficult route.

«Dunes, dunes and more dunes. The route was very fast over the first 200 kilometres. We drove behind Lazslo Palik’s Nissan Pickup for around 150 km, which was quite fun, then he stopped at the service area. We didn’t see anyone at all over the last 200 km… It was not as nice as yesterday, and quite monotonous. Some very fast sections were followed by wide plateaux. Not much fun !»

Thierry Delli Zotti, talking before he heard about the accidents which had befallen his two team-mates, was quite perplexed by the road book:
« We are fighting with the road book at the time. There are too many differences in the notes, or no notes at all, and the bearings are sometimes approximate. I have to keep on asking Isabelle to take care, or to give herself some margin for error. The dunes are particularly tricky, and the dangers are not always shown. It is not much fun to drive in these sort of conditions with risky notes...”

Isabelle has gained two places in the overall classification, and is now in eighth position. Tomorrow, the stage willtake the survivors from Sitra Road to Baharija, with a tricky 369 km stage. This will be the penultimate leg of the rally.