Dakar Stage 10: Loprais comments

The second long stage…

This year’s second long stage is behind us. It was not perfect, moreover, it was again divided by neutralization zone, which I do not like, but this time it helped us, because we had to change the wheel in its course. Fortunately, we managed everything in time and we could jump into the second part. But again, nothing was easy. We hit a stone and the power steering pump hose burst. We could not turn the wheel again, we had to stop and repair. On top of that, about 100 kilometres before the finish, after a decent jump, oil leaked from the rear shock absorbers, so we really enjoyed the ride. However, we retained the fifth place in the stage, which is under these conditions a decent result. The track was challenging and quite broken and we are pleased that the technology survived. Tomorrow we will start from the fifth place, which is certainly a better position than today. Unfortunately, there is only the tomorrow’s stage, which may allow for something to happen.

11th stage from SAN JUAN to RIO CUARTO in the entire length of 754 km, of which 288 km measured. In the first 50 km we can expect dunes and even further kilometres will be interesting because they will be driven in places of the Argentinean part of the World Championship Rally.

The second long stage…

This year’s second long stage is behind us. It was not perfect, moreover, it was again divided by neutralization zone, which I do not like, but this time it helped us, because we had to change the wheel in its course. Fortunately, we managed everything in time and we could jump into the second part. But again, nothing was easy. We hit a stone and the power steering pump hose burst. We could not turn the wheel again, we had to stop and repair. On top of that, about 100 kilometres before the finish, after a decent jump, oil leaked from the rear shock absorbers, so we really enjoyed the ride. However, we retained the fifth place in the stage, which is under these conditions a decent result. The track was challenging and quite broken and we are pleased that the technology survived. Tomorrow we will start from the fifth place, which is certainly a better position than today. Unfortunately, there is only the tomorrow’s stage, which may allow for something to happen.

Today’s 11th stage from SAN JUAN to RIO CUARTO in the entire length of 754 km, of which 288 km measured. In the first 50 km we expect dunes and even the further kilometres will be interesting because they will be driven in places of the Argentinean part of the World Championship Rally.