A HARD BLOW FOR HIROSHI MASUOKA AND PASCAL MAIMON WHO WITHDRAW FROM DAKAR 2009

It was a sad day for the driver Hiroshi Masuoka and his co-driver Pascal Maimon on this first stage of Dakar 2009. After a year of intense preparation and total involvement, the Japanese-French duo saw their chances of finishing and of victory crumble to dust.

It was during the first special of the test, at kilometre 190, that Hiroshi and Pascal were brought to a halt as a result of some concern about a broken pulley which damaged the engine block while they were making the best time of the four Racing Lancers at CP1.

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