Rally of Morocco: Peterhansel first leader

“This first special was quite rough, we shouldn't get angry otherwise there would be incidents, but it was also interesting in terms of driving,” explained Stéphane Peterhansel at the end of this first special, made up of two loops of 138 km. “After several weeks of testing this summer in Morocco, it feels good to ride improvisationally, following a good road book. The car worked well, it now has reactions that I like.” Note that the X-Raid team has recently been enriched in terms of technical staff. Bernard Lindauer, ex-Mitsubishi, now serves as consulting engineer, while Mathias Aubespin, previously seen in the Ford team-WRC, is the engineer responsible for Peterhansel's car.

Author of the second fastest time twice, the Russian Leonid Novitskiy took second place, nine minutes behind Peterhansel. Third place is occupied by the Nissan Navarra of the Overdrive team driven by Belgian Van Cauwenberge, 26 minutes behind. Next came the V8-powered “Megane Silhouette” of Jean-Noël Julien and the buggies of Philippe Vandromme (MD Sport) and Etienne Smulevici (SMG).

Note that the Russian crew Mironenko-Lebedev, entered in the second Nissan Navarra of the Overdrive team, did not take the start this morning for a surprising reason: the bags containing their suits and helmets were lost by an airline. Although their team manager, Jean-Marc Fortin, found a troubleshooting solution, with "loaned" suits, the two Russians preferred to return home, like "spoiled children"?