Dakar : Team Gauloises Sperrer - Leg 2
The Gauloises Team Raphael Sperrer left Portimao early this morning on the 567km journey to Malaga. They reached the city in 170th position overall for the day`s classification, with a time of 02:44:59. this time brings the Buggy 361 from Sperrer and Floene in 161th position in the general classification with an overall time of 03:49:24.
At the wheel of the Buggy (number 361) Sperrer and co-driver Ole Floene -both Dakar rookies - finished 170th (with a time of 02:44:59) at the end of the second special stage between Portimao and Malaga. Carlos Sainz (Volkswagen) was again fastest today ahead of Picard / Alphand and Guehennec / Al Attiyah.

Yesterday, after completing stage one the drivers still had to cover another 101km to reach Portimao, the start of stage two on Sunday: a 567km drive with 115 km of special stages which will brought the rally to Malaga in southern Spain.

“It was a tough day,” said Raphael Sperrer. “Ten kilometres before the start of the special, we encountered some problems. The engine cut out and the car didn`t want to start again. My first worry was to fix the problem to get on-time for the start. Anyway, in all that we lost about one hour over the front man, to be precise, exactly 1:10:31. We tried to solve the problem ourselves. I suspect that all the deep water we tackled yesterday might have affected the electronics. Finally we made it to the start.

“During the first 40 kilometres of the special, I was worried, the car refused to run regularly and the engine was cutting off about every five kilometres. Finally we made it to the end of the special stage despite the muddy and slippery sections just as dangerous as yesterday`s. I am not too upset about our result today: I know that this sort of adventure can happen anywhere and at any time during the rally even during the last leg on the last day. In a way, we have been lucky today."

Ole Floene added: "What a start of the new year! It`s really hard not to be disappointed after we had these problems! There is not much one can do against a technical problem. I am eager to leave Europe and to arrive in Africa. I learnt that one day can be excellent and one day can be rough like today. But at least we are still in the rally!"

Tags: leg-two, gauloises-sperrer, ktm,