Stage 5 - Driver Quotes

Nasser Al Attiyah:

The spare wheel was loose and it hit the engine water pipe, breaking it and after the temperature was very high, so we stopped to repair again and lost a lot of time. But what can I do? I was really having a good run, I was doing my maximum but I don't know what's wrong, you know. My plan today was to take at least ten minutes from everybody and that's what was happening because I was really fast until CP2, I think. But after, we stopped there because we needed water and to fix and prepare the car. So, yes, I'm disappointed again!

Marc Coma:

It was another hard and complicated stage: the mythical Fiambala stage. The special was a bit shorter than planned. In physical terms, that's good, but for me, the more distance there is, the more difficulties there are, the more likely something may happen and the more opportunities might come my way. I made a small mistake and I'm paying for it. But I'm still here and still aiming to win. With the Atacama, it's a new race that begins. We'll see what happens.

Krzysztof Holowczyc:

It was so easy, because of the rain in the evening yesterday and overnight the sand was not too soft and it was easy to drive. Okay, if you are heading down and you accelerate it's not easy to get out of the dip. I saw Giniel (De Villiers) stuck on the dunes. For sure, there were some tricky places, but in general it was very nice to drive. For me, it was a big advantage because I changed the set-up of my suspension again back to the really good one and now today our car was flying, I really loved it. Yesterday, I lost a lot. I don't know why, it was perhaps something in my mind. I hand a headache in the morning and felt like a chicken in side, just driving right here, left there, like a small guy. But today we decided to attack properly, though we went off the road and couldn't see the road at times. For sure it was a good stage and we are back in the game.

Helder Rodrigues:

It's a difficult Dakar. I'm feeling a bit tired, but everybody is in the same situation. I've had a lot of little problems with the bike and things aren't going as well as I would have liked. But I'm still here and I've not suffered. I'm third in the general standings. I'm on top form and I can go on the attack when I want, and that's what I'm going to do, because now another part of the Dakar begins. I want to go head to head with the leading two

Stephane Peterhansel:

It was not an easy day, you know, Fiambala is always a very difficult stage. This morning we started first, so opening the road was not good, not easy normally, but we took our time to navigate well. We never lost the track. Sometimes we lost a little time to take the time just to be sure, but we never took the wrong turn. In the end we didn't do the best time, but a decent time I think.

Gerard de Rooy:

It was a good day for us again, because our 3 trucks finished in the leading positions. We'll have to wait to see exactly which positions, but it's a good result anyway. The first dunes were very soft, but with the torque of our trucks, that's not a problem. Mind you, we are taking it day by day and following a team strategy for the general standings to prevent Loprais or the Kamaz drivers from putting in a big performance. Normally, the Kamaz team should be more threatening than that, but for the moment, the race is going in our favour.

Robby Gordon:

I actually kind of paced it the whole time and we didn't have any problems. Our car works good enough on those type of sections. I was surprised that we got beat by Holowczyc, he did a great job, but for us to beat Peterhansel by 3 minutes was good and that makes up a little bit of the distance. I think we beat De Villiers by about ten minutes, so I'm going to say, looking at what we see right now, we're probably in third position and we've got a long way to go. I'm not even driving the car that hard.

Ales Loprais:

Yesterday's special stage was a lot more difficult for us, because we had to drive the last 120 kilometres without a windscreen, which wasn't easy with all the streams we had to cross! Today, it's been better and we just raced against the clock trying to be as quick as possible on a special stage rally typical of the Dakar. That said, I think the outcome of the rally will be decided during the second week, so for the moment, we are aiming to survive until the rest day and then we'll see what strategy to adopt...

Giniel de Villiers:

We were going quite nicely, then in the second passage of dunes we came over a crest and there was a big hole on the other side. I nearly made it through the hole but we managed to get stuck quite badly and the sand was very, very soft. We had to jack the car up about five or six times just to try and get out and obviously we lost some time there, but that's Fiambala! Otherwise, the car still went okay. We lost fifteen or eighteen minutes, but at least we're still here.

Cyril Despres:

After the first day, you could have said that lots of other riders were going to be involved in the fight, but in the end, there aren't too many! The gaps aren't very big at the moment and we're playing with gaps of two minutes. Today was easier for me, because I set off behind him. Perhaps tomorrow, it will be the opposite. I've got a lead over him and it's a fairly comfortable cushion. Mind you, it can disappear quickly, so I need to keep the same state of mind and the same amount of concentration.

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