Paris-Dakar: Kleinschmidt takes impressive win
Jutta Kleinschmidt has claimed her first stage win in this year's Paris-Dakar in one of the most demanding stages of the rally and now moves up to fourth in the overall standings
The 518km section started and finished in El Ghallaouiya in Mauritania, and map reading skills are brought even more to the fore in this special navigation stage. Kleinschmidt proved to be the master of this new feature to the rally and the German brought her Mitsubishi home just 25 seconds clear of the charging Jean-Louis Schlesser.
The Frenchman is clawing back the one-hour penalty he collected on Sunday, but despite his second place today, he's still 56 minutes down from overall leader Jose Maria Servia, also in the Schlesser buggy.
Mitsubishi's Jean-Pierre Fontenay did not have the best of days. The Frenchman started the day in second spot, but finished the stage in seventh after rolling his 4x4 Pajero - although he drops down just one place in the overall standings.
Tomorrow, the third day in Mauritania, is the 440km El Ghallaouiya to Atar slog. The rally then takes a little breather, with Thursday allocated as a rest day.
1 J Kleinschmidt, Mitsubishi
2 Jl Schlesser, Schlesser
3 H Masuoka, Mitsubishi
4 JM Servia, Schlesser
5 T De Lavergne, Nissan
1 JM Servia, Schlesser 23h 35m 58s
2 H Masuoka, Mitsubishi, 23h 45m 52s
3 JP Fontenay, Mitsubishi, 23h 54m 56s
4 J Kleinschmidt, Mitsubishi, 24h 16m 03s
5 C Sousa, Mitsubishi, 24h 27m 29s
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