Sainz takes command

On the program, 222 km of very fast special event watered by violent storms that the title holder, the former Spanish world champion Carlos Sainz, was the fastest to complete in 2h18'32" at the controls of his VW Race Touareg 3.

“For about twenty kilometers, we had a lot of rain,” he explained upon arrival. “We saw absolutely nothing at times. Additionally, I had a problem with my windshield wipers no longer working. I'm really happy to be done with it. It was a bit like Rally of the RAC. Otherwise, everything went well with the car.”

The VW driver is ahead of the one who promises to be one of his most serious rivals. Namely, the Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel on his BMW X3 CC from Team X-Raid who is clocking 1m31 this evening. Qatar Al-Attiyah, Sainz's teammate but no less rival, leads the chasing pack at 2m16”, ahead of the two other VW Touaregs of the American Mark Miller and the South African Giniel de Villiers.

Another expected competitor, the Savoyard Guerlain Chicherit unfortunately experienced technical problems on his Mini All4 Racing: “It's hard. It was very hard. After 3 kilometers, we already had an alarm due to poor brake cooling. We managed to manage until 30 km from the end. And then, the brake discs broke, got into the rim, blocked everything. I tried to unlock everything and then continue like that, but it was impossible. It's hard. A year of work to get there. There are a lot of expectations for this car. There you go, bad start... The problem is that tomorrow we are going to pay for our problems today because we are going to go far and it will be very difficult to overtake. »