Dakar Rally news

The longest day of this year’s Dakar Rally – a tiring 817km section– offered mixed fortunes. Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret were the leading Mitsubishi crew through the first passage control and finished the stage a mere 32 seconds behind the overall rally leader.

"The stage was so fast", said Peterhansel. “We did 157km in the first hour! We are not as fast as some of the other cars. I hope now the race has entered Mauritania we have some big dunes.“

"We must have spent three quarters of the stage absolutely flat out," admitted Alphand. "I really tried hard in the camel grass and I still lost two minutes to Stéphane by the first passage control. Maybe my tire pressure was slightly under the ideal setting.”

Joan 'Nani' Roma and Lucas Cruz lost over 20 minutes through the latter sections; "At about 204km we stopped to help at the scene of the Chicherit accident for about four minutes," said co-driver Lucas Cruz.

"We limited the difference between us, the VWs and the Buggies and that was the priority," said MMSP’s Managing and Sporting Director Dominique Serieys. "Now we must look ahead to tomorrow. I hope that we can get some time back to organize a nice fight for the remainder of the race into Dakar."