JMB Stradale stage 13 report

MISSLIN LOSES TIME HOWEVER THE GENERAL RANKING REMAINS THE SAME!

Santa Rosa; the competitors have arrived after 368 km of time clocked stage and are installed in their bivouac alongside a lake for the last day before going to Buenos Aires. The JMB Stradale Off Road team are very happy with their places in the general ranking after having come in 7th, 10th, 11th, 14th, and 33rd on the day's stage.

It's Orly Terranova and his co-driver, Pascal Maimon who come in with the best time of the JMB Stradale Off Road team by obtaining 7th of the day and moving up to 9th place in the general ranking. "It was not a very interesting stage and except for 30km of dunes, the rest was long straight tracks", comments Orly and Mimoune. "We lost a lot of time behind Carlos Sousa. We could have tried to gain a little bit of time yet we thought it would be better not to take any risks. Despite our mishaps at the beginning of the race, we were able to come in within the top ten and this is the most important."

For Carlos Sousa and Matthieu Baumel, they arrived in 10th position and maintain their 6th place in the general ranking at 4h 26mn 32 s behind the provisional leader, Carlos Sainz. "If we had more engine power, the stage could have been interesting however we found it long and boring", explains Carlos. "We even would have liked to have played music in order to pass the time! All went well, and one more day until the arrival in Buenos Aires. "

Forty seconds behind Sousa, the Spinelli-Palmeiro crew arrives in 11th place of the day and move down to 10th place in the general ranking at only 6 minutes from the Argentinean, Orly Terranova. "I was a little nervous about the dunes today, as last year I rolled in this exact spot and ended my Dakar", comments Guilherme. "Today, we were very careful and everything went smoothly. Our objective was to finish within the top ten and for the moment our goal is achieved!"

With the 14th time of the day, Miguel Barbosa and Miguel Ramalho, maintain their 12th position in the general ranking and gain time on their principal competitor, Nicolas Misslin, with an advance of more than 40 minutes. "The sand was soft therefore when we started the first dune, we decided to deflate the tires", explains Miguel Barbosa. "We lost time due to a tire change but we were still able to catch up with Giniel De Villiers and raced well until the end of the stage. We are 12th in the general ranking and hope to bring the car over the finish line!"

Nicolas Misslin and Jean-Michel Polato had a bit of bad luck today and lost over two hours due to a mechanical problem. They finished the day's stage 33rd and remain in 13th place in the general ranking. "We started the day in 6th position for the departure but just before entering the dunes the axle shaft broke", explains Nicolas Misslin. "We had to wait for the T4 truck in order to receive the spare part. The positive point is that we maintain our 13th place in the general ranking."

For the last day of the rally, the Dakar 2010 competitors will run 202 time clocked km between Santa Rosa and Buenos Aires. As usual, this last day will be full of emotion and until all the competitors have crossed the finish line, anything can still happen!!

-source: jmb stradale