Declarations
car
Giniel De Villiers (AFS - WV – 3rd)
"There were many traps today. Threre were many trees and branches on the ground. I drove at ùmy pace, without taking a risk. The crowd didn’t bother me. The car works well, we will only change the four wheels."
car
Mark Miller (USA - VW - 5th)
"I think it was one of the most difficult stage of the rally, with many traps. It was very risky course because of the holes, the dust and the trees. Today, it was easy to drive fast but easy as well to make mistakes. I startede behind Vigouroux and found him stuck in the mud. I pushed with my car to take him out. I damaged the right front side of the car. No consequence. We are now close to Peterhansel. There may be something to do."
car
Luc Alphand (FRA - Mitsubishi - 1st)
"My goal was to catch up Giniel, to gain a few minutes on him, just to increase a bit my advantage at the overall. Since I shot a tree two days ago, I no longer thought about about overall victory. But first of all, I am disapointed since Mitsubishi lost a car today. There is still two stages to complete, and I only have a little twenty minutes advantage on Giniel. One or ntwo punctures, a tree, a stone... I know that anything can happen. But tomorrow, I will have thje advantage of starting first. The others will have to attack to overtake me.
I won’t lie. I am very pleased to take the lead, even if it is sad for Peterhansel."
car
I won’t lie. I am very pleased to take the lead, even if it is sad for Peterhansel."
Guerlain Chicherit (FRA – BMW – 2nd)
"I told you yesterday that we would try something today. And we did so. We have been attacking for the whole stage, even if we had some problem in the first kilometres. I punctured twenty kilometres after the start, so I lost about 8 minutes. Then it became very rocky. So I slowed down to avoid to puncture for a second time. And then, I drove fast. It vwa&s a very da&ngerous stage, I almost capsized in every turn. Actually, I felt really well on the last 150 kilometres. It was a bit like in Finland. I was really at ease and soon, I felt that we were clocking a good time. I learnt that we were second as I arrived in Labé. We could almost have made the scratch. But no regret."
car
Stéphane Peterhansel (FRA – Mitsubishi – 60th)
“I’m disappointed of course but it is less horrible than in Sharm-el-Sheikh three years ago. At that time, it happened 60 km before the end of the stage. It was the last day and I had never won the Dakar. It is a little bit different today. I’ve already won the race twice and the crash occurred earlier. Today, we had various upsets all along the dusty tracks: we first broke a rim and then a brake caliper. Once we had repaired, we got back in the dust and we hit a tree in a sharp bend. The car was seriously damaged.â€
car
Xavier Foj (SPA - Land Cruiser - 1st Production)
« The stage was very difficult today. But we knew it. We built our result yesterday when we clocked the 31th time in Bamako. So, we left before the trucks this morning. Since the cars ahead were faster than us, we were bothered by their dust. I had already been in Guinea, so I knew that the track could be very damaged. So in my head, it was full attack if the visibility was ok, otherwise stay cool. Everything went on well. the car is in perfect shape tonight. Now, we’re 6th in the overall standings fot the T2 Class. I’m very happy because it’s a new project for us and Toyota Spain."