BMW, disappointed illusions

Stéphane Peterhansel and Guerlain Chicherit would have liked to have a chance of winning the 2010 Dakar. Unfortunately, the X-Raid team drivers have a very capricious X3CC in their hands. From mechanical problems to broken parts to engine shutdowns, the cars from the Munich firm are unable to keep up.

However, in pure performance, BMW is there. The X-Raid team proved it with four stage victories, three for Peterhansel, one for Chicherit. But the lack of reliability of the car weighed down the race of the two Frenchmen, who lost several tens of minutes with a broken down car. While he was head of rally after four stages, the three-time winner of the Dakar (in a car, plus six times on a motorcycle) suffered a broken rear drive shaft and had to stop for two hours, losing any chance of winning the rally. raid. “ I have personally never broken a part like that, commented “Peter”. THE Dakar is prepared all year round. We felt good. The car ran well. And this piece gave out! »

A few days later, it was Guerlain Chicherit, while leading the eighth stage of the Dakar, who experienced problems, even earning him a reaction that was blunt and not very “corporate”. “ I'm starting to lose my patience, declared the Frenchman, victim of a car no longer wanting to move forward. It's been 5 days since I was told that the problem was resolved, that the fault was found, and in fact no! » Chichérit was not spared from the problems since, this Thursday, he lost more than 1h30? after having experienced the breakage of a suspension arm.

Also this Thursday, Stéphane Peterhansel also saw his BMW having whims as the finish of the special approached, like his teammate five days earlier. “ 30 km from the finish of the special, we had engine problems. We finished at 30 km/h, which cost us time. »

As a result, in the general classification, the setbacks of the X-Raid team crews pushed them far from the race lead. If the two BMWs are 4th and 5th, Stéphane Peterhansel is more than hours behind Carlos Sainz, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mark Miller, while Guerlain Chicherit is four hours behind first place. The duel between BMW and Volkswagen has largely turned to the advantage of VW, which occupies the first three places in the general classification, two days before the finish of the 2010 Dakar. Nasser Al-Attiyah, VW driver and who still has chances to win, claimed that it was impossible to win the Dakar with a BMW. He made the right choice.