13 January 2003 - 00:51 Meoni and Peterhansel win in Egypt Dakar 2003 : Stage 11 - 438 km

Fabrizio Meoni's 'Mission: impossible' for overall bike victory is becoming less and less... impossible. The Italian hit back in style, grabbing special victory and earning close to 10 minutes on overall leader Sainct. In the car race, the battle between the Mitsubishi boys went Peterhansel's way. On the 438km special between Sirar and Siwa, the Frenchman claimed his 5th success on the rally and increased is overal leadership on Masuoka. After losing close to 20 minutes yesterday, truck driver Gerardus De Rooy continued his winning cavalcade to Sharm El Sheikh. The Dutchman won the special 3minutes ahead of Tchaguine.

"He drove like a bullit today". The words of Swede PG Lundmark (KTM - n.16) are perfect to describe Fabrizio Meoni's (KTM - n.1) master-piece on the day's special. Advantaged by a late starting position due to his engine worries on Saturday, the Italian stormed to victory leaving the second fastest man, Richard Sainct (KTM - n.3), a mere 9min33 adrift . And the two-time race winner could have done even better: "It was a good special. It's good to go quickly. In the last part, I lost 2 minutes losing myself."

Thirty-seven minutes behind in the overall yesterday, twenty-eight today, Meoni had a completely different look on the face after the stage.
"Now everything has changed. There are no more tactics. I have to do the maximum every day. Maybe there's a chance, but it's very difficult. It all depends on the course."
Third on the day was Cyril Despres (KTM - n.7), 11min17 behind while PG Lundmark had to settle with a very satisfying 4th position.
"I was taking it slowly and Despres caught up wih me. I drove like a chicken behind him. He took all the risks and I just stayed behind. I was like a back-pack for him all day. It's a good day for me but I don't deserve it," admitted the Swede.

Out of the ten specials completed since the start of this Telefonica Dakar rally, five have gone to Peterhansel (Mitsubishi - n.206), four to Masuoka (Mitsubishi - n.200). This time for the last kilometres in Lybia, it was the Frenchman's turn to capture victory. In a final time of 3h32min53, "Peter" caught up with his team mate who had taken off 2 minutes before him to finish in front with a final lead of 2min26 on the Japanese driver.
"We are now back in the same position as two days ago. We are going to be able to spend the rest day in relaxed fashion. The battle will resume in two days. With Hiroshi (Masuoka), it isn't easy to make big time differences. Therefore, every second won is important."

Between both Evo drivers: Luc Alphand (BMW - n.221) claiming an excellent second place, only 1min30 adrift.
"It was long and fast. No problems at all. A good tyre choice today. We're here to help out Gregoire (De Mevius) so we took it easy and still finished second", admitted Matthew Stevenson, co-driver of Alphand.

The other BMW of Gregoire De Mevius (n.205) finished fourth at 2min40, confirming the Belgian's third place overall.
"Today it was psychologically important to win time on Fontenay to reassure ourselves because I believe we are faster than the old version of the Pajero."

In the standings, 'Peter' leads by 16min32 on Masuoka and 1h41min37 on De Mevius. In the battle for a place in the top five in Sharm El Sheikh, Jutta Kleinschmidt (Volkswagen - n.203) looks to be 'down and out'... Just before CP2, the German broke her turbo and was forced to wait for her assistance truck to pull her out of this very tricky situation. The 2001 winner finishes the stage 4h14min adrift and is now 11th overall. Kleinschmidt' mechanical upset means that Fontenay (Mitsubishi - n.202), sixth of the special, moves up to fourth overall while two-time WRC rally World Champion, Miki Biasion (Mitsubishi - n.207), enters the leading five positions for his first experience on the rally in a car.

In the truck race, Gerardus De Rooy (DAF - n.414) took off in 6th place and finished... first of the special. Discovering the rally on his own (and not sitting next to daddy Jan) is proving to be quite a success for the 22-year-old Dutchman. For his fifth special win on the race, De Rooy Junior left Tchaguine (Kamaz - n.407) 3minutes behind, while his father Jan (DAF - n.409) clocked the third time of the day, 6min41 behind. In the truck overall, he now has a 4min52 lead on Tchaguine. Out of all three race categories, the truck race is probably the most exciting.

press info - rally Dakar, 12/01/2003