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 | Estoril-Marrakech: Filipe Campos stronger leader before entering Morocco.
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A good day for Filipe Campos and Jaime Baptista on Monday of the Vodafone Estoril-Portimão-Marrakech, third round of the FIA Cross Country World Cup and fifth of Portuguese Championship. Thanks to an almost run-free BMW X3CC, they’re first overall and at the same time they scoring almost every point as the Portuguese championship is concerned.
With less than 200 kilometres against the clock, Campos was the strongest in all checkpoints of the day, and won the two special stages, Odelouca (188,8 km) and Portimão (14,7 km). At the end of day 2, Campos increases his lead and also had some extra help as his main rival Miguel Barbosa (Mitsubishi Lancer Turbo) is out with engine problems - thought trying to stay in the race on Tuesday.
"It was a very positive day for us. The car didn’t have any problems and Jaime’s (Baptista) navigation was crucial to impose a strong rhythm during all morning special stage. We are very happy with this result, especially in terms of Portuguese Championship", Campos stated.
Third yesterday, Hélder Oliveira (Nissan Pathfinder) is second today, thought a rough day of over 200 kilometres with used tires. "It was a though day, but good for us. We use old tires and still loose some time in the dust of Eric Van Loon, until the time he missed a junction and at that moment I got to overtake him", explained Hélder Oliveira.
Still in the podium, Eric Van Loon (Mitsubishi Lancer Turbo) was in the same pace as yesterday. The Dutch said wonders about his Mitsubishi to explain today’s result. "In Holland, it’s difficult to have a stage like this one with 4 kilometres, let alone with 200! I made some small mistakes, got passed some junctions, but just because the car is so good and so fast that when I should be braking. I was still going flat out!".
Leonid Novitskiy, who was helped yesterday by Ricardo Leal dos Santos to get out of a sandy area where his X3CC got stuck, is now fourth overall, despite "80 kilometres in the dust of Bernardo Moniz da Maia".
Fifth overall, Ricardo Leal dos Santos still waits for Africa to use all the potential of his BMW X5. Today, the car had some brake problems: "I lost the brakes for the last 50 kilometres of the stage!".
Bernardo Moniz da Maia is in sixth place, ahead of Eric Vigouroux - in difficulties in these tricky stages for the Chevrolet Silverado -, José Dinis Lucas, Mário Dinis Lucas - first in T2 - and the youngest team in the event, Ricardo and Manuel Porém, second in T2 closing the top 10.
Estoril-Marrakech Overall Cars Top 5 after SS02
01) Filipe Campos/Jaime Baptista I X-Raid BMW X3CC I 05:08:17
02) Hélder Oliveira/José Marques I Nissan Pathfinder I + 12:12
03) Eric Van Loon/Eric Verhoef I Mitsubishi Lancer I + 15:31
04) Leonid Novitskiy/Andreas Schulz I X-Raid BMW X3CC I + 23:03
05) Ricardo Leal dos Santos/Paulo Fiúza I X-Raid BMW X5CC I + 26:26
2010/06/10 | 12:23 CET | ARTICLE: MR/HS/URTUBIA
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