8/3/2019 Press CS 1jan STAGE1 Dakar2012 - Ing

1/2

Carlos Sousa sets up for the Dakar

2012 and guaranties the sixth best

mark in the first stage

The Portuguese driver was one of the good surprises at the beginning of this race,achieving the best result ever of a Chinese team in this race and placing himself in

the front group of the competition. Despite some lack of pace and not having full

trust in the car yet, he was the sixth fastest to complete the 57 km of the first special

stage of this Dakar edition, which is an excellent prelude to the Great Wall official

drivers aspirations in this Dakar 2012

Overcoming his best expectations, Carlos Sousa guaranteed today the sixth best markoverall in the first stage of the Dakar 2012 and the best result ever of a Chinese team

on the race, finishing the 57 km of the special stage this morning in 33m04s, in a very

promising beginning for the official driver of the Team Great Wall Motors, who starts

this edition exactly at the same position he finished his last participation in the race, in

2010.

He was the eighth car to start the first stage, which connected Mar del Plata to Santa

Rosa de la Pampa, in a total of 820 km, from which 763 km were a liaison section.

Carlos Sousa confessed to be somehow surprised with the final result, since I dont

feel total confidence in the car yet and lacked some pace in the first kilometers. Inthis context, this result was a very positive surprise, in a stage of medium difficulty

and already with very technical and rugged tracks due to the motorcycles, affirmed

the Portuguese driver at the arrival.

In spite of everything, the greatest difficulty of the first day of competition was the

discomfort Carlos Sousa felt concerning the driving position, something the driver had

already complained about during the tests with the team in Morocco:

I sit too close to the steering wheel and don t have much space to bend my arms.

That was obvious specially when we drove through the first dunes, due to fact theywere too soft and there was too much audience, which implied made corrections

http://www.pressaporter.pt/

8/3/2019 Press CS 1jan STAGE1 Dakar2012 - Ing

2/2

with the steering wheel. Well, it is something we will have to correct in the service

area, although I have known from the start that the compartment of this Great Wall

is a bit narrower than the Mitsubishi Racing Lancer I was used to. Apart from that,

everything in the car is perfect, so we can start concentrating in tomorrow s stage,

which will be much longer and faster than this one. This will demand a great amount

of concentration from the beginning to the end, concluded the driver at the end of

this first day of the competition. He was only 3 seconds away from being in the overall

top-five and has already guaranteed the best result ever of a Chinese team in the race.

As far as tomorrows stage is concerned, which will connect Santa Rosa de la Pampa to

San Rafael, in Argentina, it will have a total of 777 km, including the 290 km of special

stage.

Overall STAGE 1

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

1st Novitskiy/Schulz MINI 33m12s2nd Holowczyc/Fortin MINI + 5s

3rd Peterhansel/Cottret MINI + 9s

4th De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz Toyota + 15s

5th Gordon/Cambell Hummer + 49s

6th SOUSA/GARCIN GREAT WALL + 52s

()

http://www.pressaporter.pt/