Message from Stéphane Peterhansel, new overall leader of the Dakar Rally

[livia]

15 January 2007
PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE...
"...We have had nine stages now and Mitsubishi has not won one to date. But it is not necessary to win special stages to win rallies. I remember when I won my first race with a motorbike in Tunisia, in 1988, I did not win a single stage. Maybe using our experience and patience are the safest solutions to winning the Dakar. We will see in the next six days…!"

Keep pushing, Stéphane!!

[fcevolini]

Originally Posted by livia

15 January 2007
PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE...
"...We have had nine stages now and Mitsubishi has not won one to date. But it is not necessary to win special stages to win rallies. I remember when I won my first race with a motorbike in Tunisia, in 1988, I did not win a single stage. Maybe using our experience and patience are the safest solutions to winning the Dakar. We will see in the next six days…!"

Keep pushing, Stéphane!!

This is the Dakar Rally Raid! Now Peterhansel and last year winner Alphand are leading the race.

"It was an amazing day," said Alphand. "We saw De Villiers stopped and thought it was good for us. But I knew that Stéphane was pushing. Then we saw that he had stopped as well and I knew that we would have to lift off, because my turn for some bad luck may have been just around the corner. Then Sainz, Miller and Stéphane caught me. My pace was not so fast. They passed me and then Carlos stopped again with Miller alongside. Then I saw Stéphane and we finished the stage! Amazing…"

I saw yesterday on TV the highlights for this Marathon (without assistance) stage and it is incredible to see how fast are VW Tuareg on hard track, taking the advantage of their 2.5 Turbo Diesel Engine and lighter car. Unluckily for them, they paid too much their reliability problems, all engine and electronic related.
Maybe Turbo Diesel Engines are too much weakly for a such hard competition?

[livia]

Originally Posted by fcevolini

This is the Dakar Rally Raid! Now Peterhansel and last year winner Alphand are leading the race.

"It was an amazing day," said Alphand. "We saw De Villiers stopped and thought it was good for us. But I knew that Stéphane was pushing. Then we saw that he had stopped as well and I knew that we would have to lift off, because my turn for some bad luck may have been just around the corner. Then Sainz, Miller and Stéphane caught me. My pace was not so fast. They passed me and then Carlos stopped again with Miller alongside. Then I saw Stéphane and we finished the stage! Amazing…"

I saw yesterday on TV the highlights for this Marathon (without assistance) stage and it is incredible to see how fast are VW Tuareg on hard track, taking the advantage of their 2.5 Turbo Diesel Engine and lighter car. Unluckily for them, they paid too much their reliability problems, all engine and electronic related.
Maybe Turbo Diesel Engines are too much weakly for a such hard competition?

Maybe they are too weak, now...but surely they were fast...let's see next time!

and what about BMW X Raid? very close too...

[livia]

Mitsubishi Press Release:
"RECORD-BREAKING TEAM REPSOL MITSUBISHI RALLIART CLAIM SEVENTH SUCCESSIVE DAKAR RALLY VICTORY

Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart rewrote the history books by claiming a seventh successive victory in the punishing 2007 Dakar Rally after the final 16km special stage, near Dakar, in Sénégal on Sunday.The success was a record-breaking 12th win in the team’s 25-year history of competing in the world’s toughest and most famous off-road rally..."

What more can I say? We are really proud of this cooperation and we do hope to continue it as long as possible!!