Mitsubishi claims seventh successive Dakar Rally Victory
from Automotive (1605 articles)
Stephane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret celebrate their victory in the 2007 Dakar Rally.
Image Gallery ( 21 images )January 22, 2007 Given that Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart had won the last six Dakar Rallies, it was logical to expect the seventh consecutive victory which came about on Sunday with the top two placings on the podium, but that would not have paid the respect due to the fleet of VW 285-hp 2.5-litre TDI turbodiesel Race Touareg and the massive effort of the Volkswagen factory team. As it was, the Volkswagen team led the event for the first eight days and won ten of 14 possible stage victories, and but for one catastrophic day where the team’s two best placed drivers suffered valve-train failure, the results might have been different. The success was a record-breaking 12th win in the team's 25-year history of competing in the world's toughest and most famous off-road rally. The French crew of Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret won the event for the third time in four years in their Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution and beat their team mates and defending champions Luc Alphand and Gilles Picard by a margin of just seven minutes 26 seconds, after 15 days of bruising competition across Portugal, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and Senegal.
"I was very nervous on the last big African special stage yesterday and I just drove very slowly on the beach this morning," said Peterhansel. "It was not necessary to do the show for the crowd and the television on the last stage. When I won my first motorcycle race in Tunisia, I did not win a special stage, so in my head it was never a problem not to win a special stage on this Dakar. It is not that important.
"Taking the overall victory on the Dakar is the important thing. It is the best feeling. Our new MPR13 is very good and very fast, but I am sure that we can make even more improvements this year before we come back to try and win the Dakar again in 2008."
The Japanese manufacturer hit the front on the ninth special stage between Tichit and Néma in the Mauritanian Sahel, when long-time leader Giniel de Villiers suffered turbocharger problems and lost his place in the top 10. For the last six days of the rally, Mitsubishi controlled proceedings through careful team management, a professional approach by each of the drivers and thorough car preparation to record victory without the need to take a single stage win.
Mitsubishi also failed to clinch a stage win in 2001 when Jutta Kleinschmidt and Andreas Schulz clinched overall victory for the Japanese manufacturer. The statistic proved that individual stage wins on an event of the punishing nature of the Dakar are largely irrelevant.
"I won the race last year, but the important thing was to give the team victory again this time," said runner-up Alphand. "This morning it was like a party on the beach, with friends, the ocean and the victory. We proved that we have great team spirit, real determination and the best group of people."
Japan's Hiroshi Masuoka and Pascal Maimon lost their chance of taking a podium finish with two time-consuming clutch problems and a series of flat tires, but the twice former winner reached Lac Rose in fifth position after a late time penalty cost rival Nasser Al- Attiyah his place in the top five.
"This is my first Dakar finish for three years and it was a nice feeling to reach the end," said Masuoka. "But I had some problems in the early stages and this cost me my chance of a win. The team has again proved that experience is crucial on an event like the Dakar. Now we can look forward to the future and our continued success in this rally."
Spaniards Joan 'Nani' Roma and Lucas Cruz finished their first Dakar Rally together in 13th position, after clutch problems and a low-speed roll in the Mauritanian sand dunes pushed them out of contention. They were ninth fastest on the final stage, near Dakar, on Sunday, despite the fact that Roma was competing with a broken thumb after the incident with a tree stump on Saturday en route to Dakar.
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