8/3/2019 Press CS 13Jan ETAPA12 Dakar2012 - Ing

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Friday, 13th January 2012

Navigation mistake at the end of the stage

costs Carlos Sousa another position overall

Despite a promising beginning, Carlos Sousa climbed down another positionoverall due to a navigation mistake at the end of the stage. Above all, the

main topic of the day is his French co-driver, Jean-Pierre Garcins poor state

of health, due to the violent landing after crossing a dune in yesterday

stage

In a stage which the Organization considered to be the toughest of this Dakar, Carlos

Sousa kept his yesterdays promise, maintaining a strong pace since the first kilometers

of the stage between Arequipa and Nazca, in Peru, to try to recover the sixth position

overall he had lost yesterday to the Argentinian driver Lucio Alvarez.

Even though he was only the 21st car at the beginning of the 12th and

antepenultimate stage of the race, behind several slower competitors, the Portuguese

driver soon started to come closer to the front positions, being the fifth fastest driver

in the first third of the stage, less than 2 minutes behind Robby Gordons Hummer.

However, Carlos Sousas strong pace had unexpected consequences to his co-driver,

the French Jean-Pierre Garcin, who complained about strong neck and head pains, at

the middle of the stage, forcing the driver of Great Wall to lower his pace drastically:

We started the stage very well, but then I had to slow down because Jean-Pierrestarted to feel very badly, complaining about strong neck and head pains, still caused

by yesterdays hit on the dune. For a moment, I even thought we would have to give

up, but we managed to keep on going, at a much slower pace than that we were

having so far, however, said Carlos Sousa when he arrived at Nazca.

Almost with no help from his co-driver until the end of the stage, the Portuguese driver

committed a navigation mistake, which cost him about 15 minutes and, worse than

that, to enter the chain of dunes after some trucks:

Without navigation notes, I took the wrong turn at a crossroad and drove morethan 7 km back and forth, which was enough to arrive to the dunes after the first

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8/3/2019 Press CS 13Jan ETAPA12 Dakar2012 - Ing

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trucks and when the sand was already very destroyed. In short, another bad day

which will end at the hospital, where Jean-Pierre is going to be examined to make

sure he can continue on the race, revealed the driver, which nevertheless achieved

the 10th

place in the stage, about 40 minutes behind the winner.

This result was not enough to maintain the seventh place overall, which was taken by

the Dutch Bernhar Tem Brinque, who was the fourth fastest driver in todays stage.

Both drivers will begin the penultimate stage separated by only four minutes.

Tomorrow, roughness is again expected in the stage between Nazca and Pisco (which

is also the name of the most popular drink in Peru), in a total of 375 km, with a special

stage of 257 km. Once more, the main difficulties are associated with the dunes, in an

ultimate test to drivers and machines.

STAGE 12

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

1st Gordon/Campbell Hummer 2h14m32s

2nd Novitskiy/Schulz MINI + 15m18s3rd De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz Toyota + 22m06s

4th Tem Brinke/Baumel Mitsubishi + 23m15s

5th Roma/Prin MINI + 23m38s

()

10th SOUSA/GARCIN GREAT WALL + 40m05s

()

23rd ZHOU/MAIMON GREAT WALL + 1h40m15s

OVERALL AFTER STAGE 12

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

1st Peterhansel/Cottret MINI 35h19m04s

2nd Roma/Prin MINI + 20m00s

3rd De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz Toyota + 1h06m40s

4th Gordon/Campbell Hummer + 1h44m04s

5th Novitskiy/Schulz MINI + 2h00m01s

6th Alvarez/Graue Toyota + 3h52m06s

7th Ten Brinke/Baumel Mitsubishi + 4h14m24s

8th SOUSA/GARCIN GREAT WALL + 4h18m21s

()

23rd ZHOU/MAIMON GREAT WALL + 16h34m45s

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