On the way to Dakar

Finally, the marathon leg has been finished. This strange thing which started on Friday covered 1472 kilometres. On the first part, Andreas and me were really quick, narrowing the gap to the leader considerably. But there are a lot of negative aspects which outweigh the positive ones. We had to drive 450 kilometres to Boutilimit at night. The works drivers felt already tired, while the privateers certainly didn't feel any better. The worst thing was the liaison part in itself: no fewer than 250 kilometres on a tarmac surface which was incredibly bad. The only thing I can say is that this can be quite dangerous.

The stage at a length of 165 kilometres didn't cause any major surprises. Actually, it was planned to cross a chott. This is a dry sea bed. But as the rain of the past days turned the sand into a very slippery surface, the chott might have been turned into a quagmire. The worst scenario would have been that the overall standings had been affected by this situation.

When we approached the chott, we knew that the organisers had taken the right decision. But we got there by accident rather than by purpose. The new route description was a little bit tricky. This is why we've lost around 3.30 minutes to  Hiroshi Masuoka but that wasn't of any importance with regard to the overall standings.

On Sunday, there will be the traditional loop around the Lac Rosé. Afterwards, I will give you my overall view of the rally.

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