Dakar – Lavieille resists and remains in the top 20

Christian Lavieille continues the Dakar at the wheel of his No. 318 Buggu Juke prepared by Team Dessoude. The Frenchman retained his place in the top 20 at the end of the seventh stage even though his car experienced mechanical problems forcing him to limit his pace, dropping him to 18th in the general classification and putting him in an uncomfortable position. for the start of today's stage. The Team Dessoude driver will still have the satisfaction of seeing today's step shortened to 288km compared to 470 initially planned, following the bad weather which hit the region.

“We were in full 6th gear on this very fast course when around km 70, our turbo pressure dropped”, explains Christian Lavieille, co-driven by Jean-Michel Polato. “At the same time, we smelled a strong smell of diesel and we thought it was a leak. We decided not to stop and to continue like this while taking care of the mechanics. Finally, we limit the damage to the chrono. Positive point, the Buggy Juke has good stability at high speed, we were able to verify this (yesterday). The problem will arise (today) because we will start around 30th place and we will be in the dust, which is never easy to overtake? »