Peterhansel is doing well

“It was not an easy day,” said Stéphane Peterhansel upon his arrival at the bivouac. “Over the 472 km of the course, there was a lot of off-road, a lot of stones and therefore many reasons to puncture. Furthermore, navigation was not easy; fortunately, Jean-Paul, my teammate, never made a mistake. During most of the special, we drove a lot with the three VW drivers. We passed each other back and forth several times, depending on each other's punctures. »

“Of course, the gap at the finish is minimal,” conceded Stéphane. “But in our situation, anything is fair game. » With just one puncture to his credit, “Peter” lost less time than Al-Attiyah and Sainz, who had to change two wheels. And since the VW drivers only had two spare wheels with them, suffice to say that they were forced to increase the pace at the end of the stage?

Among other incidents, Guerlain Chicherit was very unhappy on arrival, his engine again experiencing power problems and electrical cuts. The Frenchman finished eighth in the special, and gave up his place of fourth overall to his teammate Peterhansel. As for Christian Lavieille, he abandoned this morning at the start of Antofagasta, a fuel leak having occurred on his Dessoude prototype during the night.