Gerard de Rooij comments on stage 5

I’m happy with losing just twelve minutes

In the first dunes we got stuck and we broke one of the drive shafts, so we had all the race with three wheels, running on 4 by 3. We got out of the dunes in one piece. It was really bad. We did it with practically no air in the tyre, just to come onto the top. We had to drive five or six times back up in front. Really hard. The temperature was too high, at 110°F because the radiator was completely full with twigs and whatever. It was a really, really tough day. I think not even fifty per cent will make it today because it was really, really hard, even for us. Twelve minutes – it’s really incredible that we only did lose twelve minutes. We made the same mistake as the two Kamaz, they forgot the way point and we did the same so there’s no difference. We didn’t lose much time, we didn’t stop or have any punctures. On the link stage we had a puncture but we could change without losing time. When we had the problem I thought we were going to lose more than an hour, so I’m happy with losing just twelve minutes.