8/3/2019 Press CS 11Jan ETAPA10 Dakar2012 - Ing

1/2

Wednesday, 11th January 2012

Carlos Sousa returns to sixth place

overall in the last Chilean stage

Despite a navigation mistake which cost him more than 15 minutes andseveral forced stops to lower the temperature of his SUV Haval through the

long the complex web of sand barriers and dunes of the Atacama a

persisting problem due to the deficient engine cooling system , Carlos Sousa

managed to climb another position overall in the last Chilean stage,

returning to the sixth position, the same he got in the opening stage of the

edition and the one in which he finished Dakar2010

Five days to the arrival to Lima and after tem stages, Carlos Sousa returned to the

starting point, taking over the sixth place he got at the beginning of this 33rd

edition of

the, precisely on the same day the convoy took leave of Chile.

In a particularly difficult stage which included a little of everything dirt, stone, sand,

dunes, fesh-fesh tracks and a lot of navigation, the Portuguese driver was the eighth

fastest driver to finish the 377 km of the special stage from Iquique to Arica, losing

almost 44 minutes to the winner of the stage due to the various problems that

conditioned his pace:

Unlike yesterdays stage, today we had a very hectic day. For starters, he failed the

car set-up completely and had some difficulties on the toughest parts of the track.

Then we made some navigation mistakes, one from which cost us 15 minutes to find

the right track. Coming to the end, passing through the dunes, we had to stop several

times to lower the car temperature, which has been a persisting problem due to the

deficient engine cooling system, summarized Carlos Sousa when he arrived to Arica.

All in one, we lost quite a lot of time today, especially with the many stops we had

to make at the end of the stage. With no wind against us, the engine temperature

rises above the reasonable limit, so the only solution is to stop the car and wait until

everything goes back to normal. It is a little frustrating because we can do nothing

http://www.pressaporter.pt/

8/3/2019 Press CS 11Jan ETAPA10 Dakar2012 - Ing

2/2

else besides wait and watch the other cars pass us by, complained the Portuguese

driver, who despite everything benefitted from the problems with Krysztof

Holowczyks MINI and for the second day in a row climbed another position overall.

It is a fantastic result and we will do everything to keep it until the end. But there

are still five days left and at this point the mechanics problems start to appear and

any slight problem can cause a huge delay, warned Carlos Sousa on the day before

Peru becomes the 27

th

country to welcome the Dakar convoy.

A final note to the fact that Robby Gordon, currently in the third position overall, is at

risk of being excluded from the competition by the College of Commissioners due to

technical irregularities detected in his Hummer after yesterdays stage.

Tomorrow, the 11th stage of the Dakar will take the drivers from Arica (Chile) to

Arequipa (Peru), in a total of 598 km which includes a special stage of 478 km on tracks

so far new to this rally.

STAGE 10Cl. Driver/Co-driver Car Time/Dif.

1st Roma/Prin MINI 3h59m37s

2nd Peterhansel/Cottret MINI + 21s

3rd De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz Toyota + 7m44s

4th Gordon/Campbell Hummer + 14m14s

5th Ten Brinke/Baumel Mitsubishi + 29m47s

()

8th SOUSA/GARCIN GREAT WALL + 43m47s

OVERALL AFTER STAGE 10

Cl. Driver/Co-driver Car Time/Dif.

1st Peterhansel/Cottret MINI 28h41m12s

2nd Roma/Prin MINI + 19m05s

3rd Gordon/Campbell Hummer + 19m51s

4th De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz Toyota + 1h01m33s

5th Novitskiy/Schulz MINI + 2h00m55s

6th SOUSA/GARCIN GREAT WALL + 2h27m53s

http://www.pressaporter.pt/