17 January 2003 - 20:24 Third special for Meoni, Vatanen and Kabirov Dakar 2003 : Stage 15 - 477 km

For this second special without GPS, the 192 remaining competitors of the Telefonica Dakar 2003 rally travelled from Louxor to Abu Rish in the north of Egypt with, for many, the same ambition: to make it to Sharm El Sheikh safe and sound on the remaining three stages of the race. A tired Fabrizio Meoni put aside his physical worries to claim his third special of the rally while Richard Sainct took it nice and easily on the road to a third Dakar victory he can know seriously consider. In the car race, Ari Vatanen flew to his 48th success on a Dakar special. Like Sainct on two wheels, Stephane Peterhansel controlled the race and followed team mate and rival Hroshi Masuoka. Firdaus Kabirov, on his Kamaz truck enjoyed his third straight win. His Russian compatriot Tchaguine is just two days away from triple glory.

The 477kms of the day's special proved to be extremely tough for the bodies and minds of the bikers. Avoiding mistakes and remaining focused was the main goal on rocky surfaces and very dusty tracks. Despite a bruised elbow and foot and a painful back after his high speed fall yesterday, an exhausted Fabrizio Meoni powered to victory...
"When you have physical problems, you never know how it's going to happen on the bike. I'm very demanding with myself and I have to ride quickly whether I'm first or last. I always go at my maximum pace. I took no pleasure at all in riding today."
No pleasure but a time good enough to leave second placed PG Lundmark (KTM - n.16) 1min47 adrift. Third place went to promising Spaniard Marc Coma (KTM - n.10) at 3min56 followed by Despres (KTM - n.7) at 4min32 and Sainct (KTM - n.3) at 5min23.

The Italian who has lost all hopes of victory in the Egyptian desert remains hungry to "maybe win the special tomorrow." In the motorcycle overall Sainct has a 10min29 lead on Despres and 33min58 on Meoni. The Frenchman can start considering the rally is slowly but surely going his way. The path to a third Dakar victory after 1999 and 2000 is now only 882kms long (out of the 8602 of the race).
"If it goes well tomorrow, I'll be a lot more relaxed."
In the battle for Marathon and Amateur category, one man has impressed throughout the rally, his name : Jean De Azevedo (KTM - n.25), fifth overall at over 1h24min.
"It isn't possible to catch him up. He's a very good rider. He seems to have no problem. I don't think he stopped once during the whole race," admitted PG Lundmark, his main rival in the privateer standings.

The car special was another Ari Vatanen (n.204) master-piece. From start to finish, the Flying Finn on a Nissan that is proving to be very competitive took off in fourth spot to clock the best times at all three CPs as well as on the finish line. Not the slightest puncture and making the best of his rallying experience, Vatanen left another former WRC World Champion (back in 1988 and 89) Miki Biasion (Mitsubishi - n.207), over 6min behind.
"Even if the Evos are going slower you still have to beat all the others. And we had a secret GPS in the car: Tina Thorner (co-driver) It would be good to win 50 specials. We now have a goal until the end of the Dakar."

Third place was for a rather disappointed Giniel De Villiers (Nissan - n.217) who had to cope with two punctures and finished at 12min49.
"Nothing seemed to go really right today. We had a good run but the punctures cost us about seven minutes. It was a stage that suited us but there's nothing you can do about it."
In the fight for overall leadership, Peterhansel (Mitsubishi - n.206) avoided taking the slightest risk as expected and settled with 6th place just 1min13 behind Masuoka (Mitsubishi - n.200). The Frenchman however eased up the pace when his Evo team mate took advantage of an odd situation.
"I stopped for natural reasons and Hiroshi went past us. He came up to us, hesitated and took off. He went on a faster pace and therefore we had to follow and put ourselves in a dangerous position. It's a very ambiguous situation."
'Peter' can still count on a comfortable 25min50 overall lead on the Japanese and over 2h23min on Fontenay. One of the most exciting battles in the overall standing could well be for 5th spot. Behind the five Mitsubishis, De Villiers is now under 6minutes from 5th man Sousa (n.211) after gaining precious time (over 11minutes) on the Portuguese on the way to Abu Rish.

Three specials for Meoni, three for Vatanen and a third triumph on this 25th editon for Firdaus Kabirov (Kamaz - n.412) in the truck race. The Russian managed to stay first from start to finish on the day while his team mate Vladimir Tchaguine (Kamaz - n.407) finished 13min57 adrift and De Azevedo (Tatra - n.410) 15min23 behind. Kabirov is more than ever in excellent position to take third place on the podium in Sharm El Sheikh with over 30 minutes on De Rooy (Daf - n.409).

Press info - rally Dakar, 17/01/2003