Mitsubishi vow to attack till the end

The German manufacturer has led since the start of the event, having scored five wins in seven stages ahead of today's rest day in Mauritania.

Mitsubishi, winners of the last five editions of the historic rally, are yet to win a stage and their highest ranked driver, Stefan Peterhansel, is over 24 minutes behind leader Giniel de Villiers.

Last year's winner Luc Alphand is 33 minutes adrift of the South African in fourth.

However, Serieys reckons the rally is far from over, and his team will go on the attack to reduce their rivals' advantage.

"The situation has changed compared to last year. Today, we have become the pursuers," said Serieys. "I must congratulate Volkswagen for the competitiveness of its cars.

"Pressure is not on our shoulders, so we shall attack till the end. Victory might even still be at stake in the Tambacounda-Dakar stage; this race can have a lot of surprises.

"We had to get to the rest day with gaps between 15 and 20'. We're not that far from it. Peterhansel has had clutch problems. Alphand did not manage to get a single trouble-free stage.

"We can't redo the race and say 'what if?'. We are not angry and in the next few days, we'll be out there to play."