Mudbath in Madrid

After having enjoyed some warmer temperatures in Southern France yesterday, we hardly expected a mudbath in Madrid. It was worse than a Fango pack of mud in a massage pool! Just imagine: it was so muddy that I caught up with the two-wheel driven buggy of Jean-Louis Schlesser who had started in front of me. Mind you the overall stage length was just six kilometres!

Anyway, it was good fun to pass him in the last corner. The quicker cars on the track literally wiped the mud off the racing line so that the privateers were driving on solid ground, being more than 1.20 minutes quicker than the top works drivers. The best Mitsubishi works driver was my French teammate Jean-Pierre Fontenay who only managed 24th spot in Madrid. He missed out on winner Fernando Gil by 1.22 minutes. And I simply had no chance but to watch dropping down the leaderboard to 72nd place after the track got better and better for the amateurs.

Anyway, now we're sixth overall and we've finally passed all the prologue and spectator stages. From tomorrow, it's only the desert that counts. 

I wish you a Happy New Year - celebrate a nice New Year's Eve tonight.

Find current results on the Dakar website or on the Mitsubishi website.