Guerlain Chicherit plays its card

“I knew that this technical special would suit me well,” explained Guerlain Chicherit. “Before the start, I asked Sven Quandt for the freedom to attack, and he allowed me to do so. So I took my chance. I set off at a good pace, being a little careful in the stony areas. At the end, I caught up with Nasser Al Attiyah, and we drove 500 meters side by side, almost door to door. Nobody wanted to give way, and at the end of the straight, we couldn't negotiate the bend, we both went straight, hitting small trees? »

“But it was really cool, I had fun,” Chicherit continued. “Tomorrow we are going to open a strategic stage, with navigation and sand. It will be good training. »

Orlando Terranova also stood out with his Mitsubishi Lancer, as Pascal Maimon, his teammate, tells us. “Orlando was coming back to his country and he was very motivated. His pace was very fast, and it was a little stressful, because you had to be vigilant while navigating. But everything went well, and luckily we didn't have a puncture. » The Argentinian driver's second place delighted Dominique Serieys, the team manager of the JMB Stradale Off Road team. “It makes me two years younger, and proves the capabilities of our car on these mountain tracks. »

Two drivers, and not the least, suffered punctures due to sharp stones: Stéphane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz. Both had to change two wheels, Stéphane during a single stop. If the driver of the X-Raid team took this with calm and fatalism, the Spaniard was really showing his face? at the arrival ! There is reason, since Nasser Al Attiyah, constantly on the attack, returned to less than five minutes of him. There are still three steps left to decide between them? unless racing instructions come down!