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This is the single-news section of the
marathonrally.com rally-live special of the UAE Desert Challenge 2006. To navigate please use the upper or right Navigation Bar.
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UAE Desert Challenge: Alphand takes a commanding lead
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Frenchman Luc Alphand and co-driver Gilles Picard will take a 20m 45s lead into the final day of the 2006 UAE Desert Challenge after setting the fourth fastest time through the longest section of the event, an energy-sapping 378.90 km selective section that wound its way through some of the remotest desert terrain in the Rub Al-Khali region of the Abu Dhabi emirate, today (Thursday). Team mates Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret finished the stage in third place and head into the last day in second overall, with Japan¹s Hiroshi Masuoka and Pascal Maimon completing the team line-up in seventh place.
Alphand and Picard began the day¹s competition 22m 22s ahead of their closest team mates and immediately behind them in the starting order. But Alphand discovered that it is easier to follow than to open the stage and had gained 1m 37s on his team mate by PC1.
But Peterhansel redressed the balance at PC2 and was running second fastest on the track behind Qatar¹s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah. Four cars arrived in a procession at PC3 and Spaniard Carlos Sainz eventually pressed on to take the stage win, with Alphand and Peterhansel consolidating their first and second positions in the overall classification, after Peterhansel lost time with two flat tires and Alphand eased his pace to avoid taking risks over the closing kilometres.
"I was asked by the team to slow down after PC2," said Alphand. "Orders! It was a pretty safe day. I was with Stéphane at one point in some big dunes with no GPS point and we lost three minutes. Then it was smarter to let Nasser and Carlos go past. They are a long way behind us. Now I must take it easy and not push to save the car. There¹s one day to go. It¹s looking good."
"Carlos passed me on a fast track 30 km from the end of the stage," said Peterhansel. "I tried to push and catch him, but he was driving very fast. I did not want to take too many risks. After the refuelling the stage was much faster, but it is always dangerous to drive too hard. I had a front-right puncture early on. We changed the wheel and then we had a puncture again, so we stopped again."
Hiroshi Masuoka and Pascal Maimon started behind Qatar¹s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and were anxious to close the gap on the seventh-placed Spaniard José-Luis Monterde, who began the day 2m 46s ahead of the 2004 UAE Desert Challenge winner. Hiroshi had gained 2m 03s at PC1 and had moved ahead of the Spaniard by PC2, despite losing some time in soft sand. He will start the final morning in seventh position. "I lost some time in the sand this morning," said Masuoka. "But I am pleased that we managed to take seventh place."
Today¹s selective section was again delayed to allow early morning fog to clear. The organizers also introduced a refuelling point at PC2 for the cars, after a request from one of Mitsubishi¹s rival teams under a regulation that selective sections would not exceed 300 km without a refuelling stop.
"The strategy of the day was to stay in contact with the others and I am quite happy with our third, fourth and fifth places," said MMSP¹s Managing and Sporting Director Dominique Serieys. "We will check the cars tonight and look at the strategy for the final day, but the whole team did a good job. At PC2, I asked Luc to stop and let Carlos and Nasser go through, because this is not our game and I did not want Luc getting involved in a game to win the stage. There are no team orders and Stéphane will be able to drive his own race tomorrow."
2006/11/09 | 13:45 CET | Editor: UAE Live Team, Neil Perkins
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