2007 Dakar Rally
Leg 13 Kayes - Tambacounda
Liaison: 180.00 km, Special 260.00 km, Liaison 18.00 km, Total 458 km
. Kleinschmidt heads into Tambacounda with 20th fastest time
. Monterde (13TH) and Nobre (37th) safely into Tambacounda
Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and French co-driver Alain Guehennec headed across the border into Senegal in fourth position this morning and were 12th fastest on the 260km special stage between Kayes and Tambacounda after losing time with minor transmission problems.
The Qatari retained fourth position in the overall classification subject to an appeal over a speeding penalty that will be heard at a later date, and is now 30m 58s behind third-placed Jean-Louis Schlesser.
"We lost gears on the stage and had to make do with what we had," said Al-Attiyah. "But we were very lucky. The gearbox in this car is very strong and we were able o continue. In some cars I am sure we would have had big problems." The gearbox as changed at the bivouac.
The organisers had warned that navigation would be tricky on the day's stage and there were several carefully monitored speed restriction zones through villages and heavily populated areas. The fact that bike race leader Marc Coma got lost and then crashed was a case in point. It was not a stage to be taken lightly.
German Kleinschmidt and Swedish co-driver Tina Thörner were the 11th crew on the stage this morning and held 15th in the overall standings in the second BMW X3CC. They set the 20th fastest time and retained 15th place.
Spaniard José-Luis Monterde and Jean-Marie Lurquin reaches the stage start, 16th on the road and in 17th position overall. They moved up a place to 16th overall. "It was a dangerous stage," said Monterde. "Dust, narrow roads, trees. It was easy to make a mistake."
Brazilian Paulo Nobre and co-driver Filipe Palmeiro were the 21st car into the stage to Tambacounda and held 40th overall in their BMW X5. They set the 37th fastest time.
Major support for the X-Raid team comes from new Hessen-based sponsor TrekStor, Magna Steyr, BMW Motoren GmbH, Reiger, BF Goodrich, MAN, Sabelt, BBS and KS-Tools.
Saturday marks the last of the traditional African special stages - a 225km section between Tambacounda and Dakar in Senegal. The section starts 124km to the west of Tambacounda at the town of Koumpentoum. The route heads towards Velingara and finishes near Mbake, before the final road liaison section towards the Atlantic coast and the X-Raid Team's arrival in Dakar.
Positions after leg 13 -
1. Stéphane Peterhansel (F)/Jean-Paul Cottret (F) Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero
Evolution 43h 13m 22s
2. Luc Alphand (F)/Gilles Picard (F) Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution
43h 24m 37s
3. Jean-Louis Schlesser (F)/Arnaud Debron (F) Schlesser-Ford 44h 52m 09s
4. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QA)/Alain Guehennec (F) BMW X3CC 45h 23m 07s
5. Mark Miller (USA)/Ralph Pitchford (ZA) Volkswagen Touareg 45h 31m 09s
6. Hiroshi Masuoka (J)/Pascal Maimon (F) Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution
45h 55m 51s
7. Carlos Sousa (P)/Andreas Schulz (D) Volkswagen Touareg 48h 34m 20s
8. Robby Gordon (USA)/Andy Grider (USA) Hummer 50h 26m 40s
9. Carlos Sainz (E)/Michel Périn (F) Volkswagen Touareg 50h 50m 36s
10. Stéphane Henrard (B)Brigette Beceu (B) Volkswagen Buggy 51h 25m 50s
X-Raid entries
15. Jutta Kleinschmidt (D)/Tina Thörner (S) BMW X3 CC 53h 46m 58s
16. José-Luis Monterde (E)/Jean-Marie Lurquin (B) BMW X5 54h 24m 23s
TBA. Paulo Nobre (BRE)/Filipe Palmeiro (P) BMW X5 61h 16m 09s
- BMW X-Raid -
More reports from this category all copyright automobilsport.com.
