2008 FIA CUP FOR CROSS-COUNTRY BAJAS BAJA PORTALEGRE 500 (OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 2) 01/11/2008
TEAM REPSOL MITSUBISHI RALLIART’S NEW RACING LANCER
TAKES CONTROL TO MARK ITS DEBUT IN PORTUGAL
Leg 2 (Saturday, November 1, 2008), Nerpor-Nerpor (Portugal):
Road section: 0.10km. Service (10 minutes). Road section: 7.17km
SS2: 140.00km
Road section: 5.86km. Service (40 minutes). Road section: 7.30km
SS3: 258.98km
Road section: 5.86km. Service (3 hours). Total distance: 425.37km
MITSUBISHI RACING LANCER
The first full day of competition has seen Stéphane Peterhansel/Jean-Paul Cottret
(France) power the Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart Racing Lancer to the top of the Baja
Portalegre 500’s provisional leaderboard. The Mitsubishi pair lost a little ground on
Friday’s short super-special but profited from this morning’s 140km stage to the
southwest of Portalegre to take control of the fifth and final round of the 2008 FIA Cup for
Cross-Country Bajas.
The new Racing Lancer, which is making its competition debut this weekend in Portugal,
continued to revel in the cold, damp conditions on the day’s second test (258.98km) to
pull even further clear and take the French crew 4 minutes 10 seconds clear of their
closest chasers with just 110km of competitive action remaining on Sunday morning.
“I pushed quite hard on the first stage, although I tried to keep my driving as smooth and
tidy as possible, because the conditions were extremely treacherous and I didn’t want to
take any risks,” reported Stéphane Peterhansel at service this evening. “We dropped a
little ground after stopping to change a punctured tyre after 25km but we managed to
recover that time to claim SS2 by 32 seconds. The Racing Lancer feels really
competitive. You can sense all the torque pulling you out of the tighter corners and up the
steeper climbs. I was very pleased with the front suspension, too; I found it to be very
precise and efficient on this type of terrain. We kept to the same sort of rhythm on this
afternoon’s longer test because that was equally as tricky, with lots of water on the
ground. The problem was that the conditions weren’t predictable, so you had to be on the
alert all the time just in case you came across a big puddle under braking, for instance…”
“There was effectively plenty of standing water about,” confirms Stéphane Peterhansel’s
co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret. “The conditions were very slippery and it could have been so
easy to get caught out in certain places. But like Stéphane, I thoroughly enjoy the
relatively fast stages in this region which is basically the same part of Portugal which
hosted the Rali Transiberico and the PAX Rally earlier in the year. On top of that, the fact
that we lost time on Friday afternoon meant that we had a low start order, and that
actually turned out to be a good thing: there was absolutely no dust, of course, and the
first cars through tended to cut through the slippery top film to expose a firmer base
underneath, which meant we benefited from good grip.”
Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart Director Dominique Serieys praised his crew for their
brighten performance over today’s challenging terrain, but repeated that the team is here
in Portugal with a view to adding kilometres on the new Racing Lancer’s clock: “The
weather conditions really weren’t nice, especially early on, but Stéphane and Jean-Paul
did a fine job to come through the day unscathed. They are professionals and know what
is expected of them this weekend, which is essentially to fine-tune the final details of the
new Racing Lancer’s development before January’s Dakar.”
The programme of the last day of the 2008 Baja Portalegre 500 features a single 110km
stage before the finish ceremony in Nerpor/Portalegre later in the morning. Following the
poor weather that has marked the event so far, crews could well be greeted by a little
sunshine as they set off for the final leg early on Sunday morning.
SS2 CLASSIFICATION
1. Stephane Peterhansel (MITSUBISHI RACING LANCER) - 1:42:52 (+**:**:**.*)
2. Filipe Campos (BMW X3) - 1:43:24 (+0:32)
3. Ricardo Leal dos Santos (BMW X5) - 1:45:30 (+2:38)
4. Miguel Barbosa (BMW X3) - 1:45:46 (+2:54)
5. Pedro Grancha (NISSAN NAVARA OFF ROAD) - 1:45:47 (+2:55)
6. Tonnie Van Deijne (MITSUBISHI L200 EVO) - 1:47:31 (+4:39)
7. Boris Gadasin (NISSAN FRONTIER) - 1:48:08 (+5:16)
8. Miroslav Zapletal (MITSUBISHI L200) - 1:51:15 (+8:23)
9. Aleksandr Mironenko (MITSUBISHI PAJERO) - 1:51:40 (+8:48)
10. Luis Climent (TOYOTA PROTO) - 1:52:11 (+9:19)
SS3 CLASSIFICATION
1. Stephane Peterhansel (MITSUBISHI RACING LANCER) - 3:04:41 (+**:**:**.*)
2. Filipe Campos (BMW X3) - 3:08:21 (+3:40)
3. Miguel Barbosa (BMW X3) - 3:11:47 (+7:06)
4. Pedro Grancha (NISSAN NAVARA OFF ROAD) - 3:13:57 (+9:16)
5. Tonnie Van Deijne (MITSUBISHI L200 EVO) - 3:16:32 (+11:51)
6. Miroslav Zapletal (MITSUBISHI L200) - 3:21:10 (+16:29)
7. Joao Ramos (TOYOTA RAV 4) - 3:23:31 (+18:50)
8. Ricardo Leal dos Santos (BMW X5) - 3:24:38 (+19:57)
9. Bernando Moniz da Maia (BMW X3) - 3:27:35 (+22:54)
10. Rui Sousa (ISUZU D-MAX) - 3:27:55 (+23:14)
OVERALL CLASSIFICATION AFTER LEG 2
1. Stephane Peterhansel (MITSUBISHI RACING LANCER) - 4:47:33 (+**:**:**.*)
2. Filipe Campos (BMW X3) - 4:51:45 (+4:12)
3. Miguel Barbosa (BMW X3) - 4:57:33 (+10:00)
4. Pedro Grancha (NISSAN NAVARA OFF ROAD) - 4:59:44 (+12:11)
5. Tonnie Van Deijne (MITSUBISHI L200 EVO) - 5:04:03 (+16:30)
6. Ricardo Leal dos Santos (BMW X5) - 5:10:08 (+22:35)
7. Miroslav Zapletal (MITSUBISHI L200) - 5:12:25 (+24:52)
8. Joao Ramos (TOYOTA RAV 4) - 5:16:30 (+28:57)
9. Pedro Gameiro (NISSAN NAVARA) - 5:24:04 (+36:31)
10. Rui Sousa (ISUZU D-MAX) - 5:24:58 (+37:25)