After yesterday saw the retirement of both her team-mates, Isabelle is the only member of Team Nissan France Dessoude still in the race. Eighth overall, she drove a cautious race today, taking care not to jeopardise her hopes of getting to the end of the event, which finishes tomorrow, in front of the Sphinx at Gizeh. Exactly where the rally started, five days earlier.

Unlike yesterday’s drama, Friday turned out to be a lot calmer for Team Nissan France Dessoude. Benoît Rousselot has returned to Cairo, from where he will fly back to Paris tomorrow. As soon as he arrives, the driver will undergo a complete medical check-up, but his condition is already quite satisfactory.

For Isabelle Patissier, today went well, setting the 7th fastest time over the stage, which maintains her 8th place in the overall classification.
«This morning, we started fifth, according to yesterday’s stage classification before the penalties that some competitors received due to failing to set off the waypoints on the GPS. After these penalties, we moved up to second-fastest on the stage between Siwa and Sitra Road.

Today, we maintained a steady pace as the start of the special was very rough. There was a trial-type hill, then some long fast sections, but very rough with big potholes and bit rocks. The sort of thing to break your suspension. Danger – beware ! After that, we had to go over some dunes. But as most of the stage was not in the sand, we were able to keep a relatively high tyre pressure. Towards the end of the route, the route was very nice, on a technical track, very interesting to drive. Moreover, for once, the road-book was very precise at that point, which is unusual enough to deserve a mention.

We did not have any problems with the car, and we are continuing to test various shock absorber settings. Tomorrow, we’ll be heading back to Cairo with the final timed stage. Another 309 km to go…»

So, tomorrow they will head back towards Cairo and the Pyramids. A 403 km stage, including 309 km of timed sectors. Although the leaders appear to be firmly in place, there could still be a few surprises in store, and Isabelle could manage to climb up another place, as Edi Orioli is only nine minutes ahead of her.