Rallye Dakar Nachrichten

PETERHANSEL EXTENDS HIS LEAD

Stéphane Peterhansel and his co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret (France) came through the punishing conditions of the Central Europe Rally's third day to strengthen their lead at the top of the current standings with their Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution MPR13. The French pair was joined on the provisional podium by team mates Luc Alphand and Gilles Picard (France) in third place, whilst Nani Roma and Lucas Cruz (Spain) were fourth.

Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart's day was marred, however, by a freak accident which led to the early retirement of Hiroshi Masuoka/Pascal Maimon (Japan/France). While the crew was changing a tyre on the morning's stage, a rival competitor ran over the French co-driver's left foot. X-rays later revealed a fractured ankle bone and he was forced to withdraw.

After Monday's extremely competitive loop through the mountains near the Romanian city of Baia Mare, the survivors tackled the same circuit today, but this time in the opposite direction. Worsening weather and the fact that the tracks had been cut up badly by the previous day's visit meant that the crews faced an even tougher examination.

Peterhansel posted the second fastest time over this morning's 76km, and his drive on the shortened repeat run (36km) in the afternoon gave him the second best aggregate time for the day. "It's been another very positive day for us, despite the conditions which were far worse than those we encountered yesterday," he reported. "The stage was badly cut up, and the rain meant there was surface water and deep mud everywhere; the fog made things even more difficult this morning! Jean-Paul and I have a cushion of more than two minutes this evening, and that's great of course. However, we now leave Romania for more unknown territory in Hungary and there's no way we can afford to relax just yet!"

For the second day running, fellow Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart drivers Luc Alphand and Nani Roma mastered the appalling conditions to move up the rankings and they were split by just half a minute in third and fourth place this evening. "It's been another very challenging day," said Alphand after this afternoon's test. "The conditions were much worse than yesterday, and we weren't helped when our power-steering drive-belt started slipping because of all the water during the second half of this morning's stage. The steering was more difficult to control as a result and I lost some ground."

After this afternoon's stage, the competitors faced a 227km road section back into Hungary for an overnight stop in the country's second-largest city, Debrecen. Wednesday's programme features another long run-out (213km) to the day's first stage (62km), near Dabas, and a second test (110km) close to Veszprem, at the northern tip of Lake Balaton.