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Showing posts with label Ing Jacobacci. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ing Jacobacci. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Dakar 2009 - Stage 4: Interviews
Carlos Sainz (Esp – 301 – Volkswagen) - 301
“We started very well and very quickly. We soon caught up with Nasser Al Attiyah. When he realized it was us, he counter-attacked and we both continued to race at a very speedy pace, until I was able to overtake on an off-track section. However, just afterwards, I started loosing air from a tire. I had to stop and pump it back up, because it wasn’t a flat tire, just a slow puncture. I was regularly loosing tire pressure right up until the end of the special stage. I think I arrived with only half a kilo of pressure and must have won by just 5 of 6 seconds. It’s a shame, because I could have done better”.
Nasser Al Attiyah (Qat – 302 – BMW) - 302
“I think Carlos Sainz overtook me just before we reached the 100-km mark. After that, I followed on his tail and we raced up to the finish. It’s not a problem that he won the stage. It’s even a good thing for me that he will be leading the way for a stage where there should be sand dunes. I damaged the car a bit because there were plenty of trees and also a lot of overtaking to get past the bikers. So, we hit the odd tree, but fortunately it’s nothing serious. This Dakar is really going well and we’re right where we want to be!”
Giniel de Villiers (Zaf – 305 – BMW) - 305
“It wasn’t such a bad stage. I caught up with Dieter Depping who had a puncture. I saw Carlos Sainz and Nasser Al Attiyah. I was two minutes behind them. The route was very bumpy and undulating. It was difficult to go full throttle, attack and make up some ground. When you are two minutes behind, it isn’t all that easy to claw back time on the leaders. The stages are becoming more and more difficult. It’s a proper Dakar”.
Marc Coma (Esp – 2 – KTM) - 002
“It was a nice stage with some good riding at the beginning then a bit more navigation. The landscape changed, making it a bit more technical, and more physical because you start to feel all the efforts put in so far. Today, it was shorter but harder than the other days. It was a bit like Morocco, where the tricks are nice and quick. I didn’t have any problems with my tires. Since it was a shorter stage, we chose to use foam bibs, and I haven’t had any problems with them. What was strange was having to open 4 or 5 gates. They are cattle gates for keeping the cattle from leaving the farms. In the Patagonia - Atacama the tradition is to close them behind you so everyone is on an equal footing, but this time I left them open, especially as it was my team-mate Viladoms behind me!”
Jonah Street (Usa – 26 – KTM) - 026
“It was a nice day. Until refueling, I really enjoyed riding on these winding tracks. It was also good to be able to ride without having to constantly think about going easy on the tires, because on the first two stages, I had to slow down. I also liked the last part, because I knew there would be some off-track riding. When you have to ride without the others tracks, it’s even better”.
David Frétigné (Fra – 12 – Yamaha) - 012
“It was superb. We finished on the stony tracks, which were a bit quicker, with a crossing of a dry river where there was a big crowd to encourage us. It was a really great special, very varied. I’ve never had such a good time on the rally. It’s also the way the special stages are designed which helps. They are technical, interesting and require a lot of concentration. As a biker, that makes for great riding”.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Dakar 2009 - Stage 3 - Cars Interviews
Today, I had to attack. I lost a lot of time in yesterday’s stage so I had to take that into account and push hard during this special stage. So I drove fast and passed Terranova, then Miller, etc. And eventually,
Now, I know that Carlos and I, we will be playing the game. Tomorrow, he will start behind me and I’m sure he will be putting the pressure on pretty quickly in the race.
Stéphane Peterhansel (Fra - 300 - Mitsubishi) - 300
"It was a fast stage. We had a hard time keeping the lead car in our sight. We lost time little by little. From then on, there was nothing but dust and without a pacemaker in front, it was hard to keep going. We finished with a delay. I hope we will find more technical routes with some tech crossing because this is how we can thing about making a difference. The car is going well; its performances are ok. But now we need bumpier trails to make the best of its good suspension and great balance."
Giniel De Villiers (Afs - 305 - VW) - 304
It was a pretty nice stage; this time, there were more sinuous sections and I found this more interesting than the two previous ones. It was very fast in the beginning and very fast at the end as well, so there were not many opportunities to create big gaps. We just tried to drive clean and avoid boulders as there were many on the trail. For now, we must keep putting pressure on the Mitsubishis. So far, we have had no problems so we will try to keep going that way and we’ll see what happens.
Verhoeven opportunistic whilst Sainz takes control
On a stage that was mostly quick, which suited Marc Coma in theory, the leader of the general standings in the bike race lost part of his lead, slowed down by a mechanical problem. Frans Verhoeven won his first ever special stage on the
What is true one day is not always thus the day after. The same could be said for Marc Coma, whose display between
ing bikers in the rally. Having set off first, with the responsibility of leading the way, the Spaniard continued in much the same vein to start with as his brilliant showing yesterday, landing the best time at CP2, 2.20 ahead of Jonah Street. But he was only half way there! The situation took a turn for the worse on one of the quick sections of which he is so
fond, when he was slowed down by a radiator problem. Frans Verhoven, renowned for his consistency, took advantage of this mishap to grab his first ever special stage victory on the
Many riders would still like to be in Marc Coma’s shoes however, since he has a lead of 13.47 over his new pursuer, Frans Verhoven. Provisional third place on the podium went to
In the car category, the first stage showed that the Volkswagen Race Touaregs would not be waiting in ambush for long, and today Carlos Sainz was the most capable at combining speed and wisdom. For Nasser Al Attiyah and Tina Thorner, yesterday’s winners, the task was proving that their talents as navigators were equal to their pure driving skills. At this level, small mistakes can change everything. Indeed, after a navigational error, when the crew had to execute a quick about-turn to avoid missing a WPM (way point marker, which drivers must pass through), the Qatari ended up behind Sainz and especially in a cloud of dust. Blinded by the Argentine version of fesh-fesh, Al Attiyah sensibly preferred to avoid potentially dangerous attacks. In these conditions, Carlos Sainz completed a faultless display, right up to the finishing line, with the day’s best time. As regards the Mitsubishis, Stéphane Peterhansel was not scared by the dust and his audacity paid off: he scored the second best time of the day, 1.14 behind Sainz.
The first surprises occurred in the T2 category, in which Miki Biasion, former WRC world champion, lost his place as leader. The day’s winner in the category, Michel De Nora, at the wheel of a Toyota Land Cruiser, only managed to rack up a lead of 1.30 over Jérôme Hardy, in a Mitsubishi Pajero. However, for the moment, Mr. Consistency is Jun Mitsuhashi, a former winner of the “Production” category, who is showing great resistance. He is currently in 36th position in the provisional general standings.
In the truck category, the turn that events are taking is starting to become a worry for title holder Hans Stacey, who, after only two special stages, is already 1:12.00 behind the race leader: Gerard De Rooy. The GINAF driver, who yesterday saw a stage victory slip through his grasp by just two seconds, was untroubled by the day’s route. He triumphed with a lead of 3.58 over Firdaus Kabirov and has taken the lead in the truck general standings. (Marathonrally.com)
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