07 January 2003 - 20:15 Sainct ''Magnifique'', Mitsubishi still as impressive Dakar 2003 : Stage 5 - 285 km

In the first long special of the Telefonica Dakar 2003 between Tozeur and El Borma in Tunisia, Richard Sainct confirmed that on his single cylinder KTM he was the man in form of this first week on he rally. The heavier KTMs of Meoni and Roma are however well present in the chase for overall victory. In the car race, it appears that the Mitsubshi Evo are for the moment one level over all he others with Masuoka flying to the special win and taking over the race leadership from team mate Peterhansel. The battle in the truck category saw Tchaguine take command while Loprais won he special.

Not a cloud over El Borma and strong winds on day 6 of the rally. In this second African stage and on the 285km special, the main danger of the day was the hard surface and rocky conditions. Not a problem for Richard Sainct (KTM - n.3) who conquered his second success of the race and increased his overall leading position on a surface he enjoys.

"I like this kind of hard terrain. The day went well. We are starting to see who are the strong men of this Dakar. Honestly there aren't any major surprises. It's a good start. Some long days are yet to come."

A good day for the Frenchman on his 700cc single-cylinder, a tougher day for the heavier twin-cylinder bikes of Meoni and Roma. Just by checking out the state of their tyres, one could imagine what a tricky stage it had been. Surprisingly, both men managed some very impressive performances. Meoni finished in 2nd spot, just 17secs behind Sainct.

"Forty kms from the finish I could feel stones hitting my back. I stopped and saw the state of the tyre. I had to slow down. It's a pity because I had done well in the first kms on sand and I like sand. I drove well not at my best but I was in shape."

Hard to imagine the Italian not doing better on softer tracks. Roma, third was just as impressive despite losing over 3 minutes due to the same tyre problems. The real days of the big KTMs will certainly come soon.

On four wheels, the Mitsubishis are in a world of their own. When special winner Masuoka (Mitsubishi - n.200) says: "I didn't have the feeling I was going fast. I could have gone a lot faster. I was only at 90% of my possibilities", it only shows what a fantastic car the Japanese is driving. When seeing the Evo overtake him, De Villiers (Nissan - n.217) thought he "was looking for a parking space."

The 2002 rally winner took advantage of his special success ahead of Peterhansel to claim the overall lead with a 55secs advantage on the Frenchman. And just seeing the gap with the third car in the standings, Shinozuka's Nissan, over 8min adrift, one can only admire the qulity of the 'Mitsus'. Shinozuka remains rather optimistic however: "Today our car is not perfect, therefore we don't know if the Mitsubishis are good."

The Japanese pilot's team mate Ari Vatanen suffered a very difficult day on this hard surface course finishing 13th, over 25 minutes off the pace. Again, the 'Flying Finn' has his reasons: "We had three punctures but not really because of the hard surface. The problem came from our tyre inflating system without us realising. We kept pumping air in the tyre. That's why we had the punctures. We finally saw the problem after the third tyre. It was lucky because if we had punctured the fourth, it was finished for us."

Happier than Vatanen was, for a change, Jutta Kleinschmidt, who was finally able to test her Volkswagen Tarek, finishing 10th and moving up to 12th overall.

"We managed a good special. I overtook 17 cars. It was difficult because there was a lot of dust. I'm happy because the car works well and Stephane Henrard also did well."

The day was a real nightmare for French pilots Alphand (BMW - n.221) and Delavergne (Nissan - n.210) destroying their front suspensions on the same jump. Both were still expected on the finish line in El Borma... awaiting assistance.

In the heaviest of categories, Tchaguine (Kamaz - n.407) eased up to top spot in the overall after finishing second of the special behind Loprais (Tatra n- 408).

raid-live.com, 06/01/03