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 | Dakar 2010: JMB Mitsubishi crews remain grouped together.
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Yesterday’s 10th stage, a total distance of 586 km, of which 238 km was timed, marks another page in the 32nd edition of the 2010 Dakar. The crew members of the JMB Stradale Off Road team remain grouped, coming in respectively 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, and 12th at the arrival of the Santiago bivouac.
For this last stage in Chile, the competitors were very careful with their cars. Orlando Terranova and Pascal Maimon finished with the best time of the team by coming in 6th of the day and moving up to 9th in the general ranking at almost 4 hours from the provisional leader of the race, Carlos Sainz. "It was a perfect day for us, and we were very happy with our BFGoodrich tires as the terrain was very rocky today!"
The 7th place of the day was obtained by Miguel Barbosa and Miguel Ramalho, who are now 12th in the general ranking. With more confidence, Miguel Barbosa comments: "It was more like a WRC terrain and very similar to the ones we find in Portugal and which I like very much. We had to be very careful as it was very slippery. This is the best result that we’ve obtained since the beginning of the rally and we are now starting to feel comfortable with the Lancer."
In 8th place of the day and also in the general ranking, Spinelli and Palmeiro drove well on this 10th stage. "When we left the bivouac, we were eating our competitors dust. We fortunately were able to pass the cars which were the most bothersome and then drove quietly until the end of the stage without any problems", explains Guilherme Spinelli.
Carlos Sousa and Matthieu Baumel come in with the 10th time of the day and maintain their 6th place in the general ranking with a one hour margin in front of their main competitor, Giniel De Villiers : « We had a puncture at the beginning and then decided to slow down as the terrain was very slippery. I preferred not to take any risks. There were a lot of fans along the special stage which made the stage very welcoming" comments the Carlos Sousa.
The French tandem Misslin-Polato obtained the 12th time of the day and move up to 13th place in the general ranking. "We drove at full throttle the 20 first km with a high tire pressure and the car slid a lot. At km 80, we lost our front brakes and from then on, it was like we were walking on eggs….we did our best to avoid the worst…" states Nicolas Misslin.
2010/01/13 | 14:39 CET | Editor: MR/HS/JMB
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