Paris-Dakar: Schlesser takes another stage win
The reigning Paris-Dakar champion Jean-Louis Schlesser took his sixth stage win of the rally today (Monday), finishing the relatively short Tidjikja to Tichit stage just 24 seconds clear of Carlos Sousa's Mitsubishi
After the exertions of the weekend, today's timed special was 'just' 230km, so despite Schlesser's win, there wasn't much time to cut into Hiroshi Masuoka's overall lead and the Frenchman still finds himself lying in second, almost 34 minutes behind Masuoka. The Japanese driver was fifth today, his Mitsubishi three and a half minutes down from the winning time.
Jean-Pierre Fontenay's Mitsubishi was third, with the second Schlesser buggy driven by Jose Maria Servia just pipping Masuoka to fourth.
Tuesday's 499km Tichit to Nema section is the last in Mauritania before heading to Mali. And although the leaders will not be easing off the gas tomorrow, the rally covers almost 1700km in just two days in Mali, and one or two of the drivers may just be conserving their energies for these mammoth stages on Wednesday and Thursday.
1 JL Schlesser, Schlesser
2 C Sousa, Mitsubishi
3 JP Fontenay, Mitsubishi
4 JM Servia, Schlesser
5 H Masuoka, Mitsubishi
1 H Masuoka, Mitsubishi, 51h 34m 48s
2 JL Schlesser, Schlesser, 52h 08m 47s
3 C Sousa, Mitsubishi, 52h 14m 07s
4 J Kleinschmidt, Mitsubishi, 52h 26m 13s
5 JM Servia, Schlesser, 53h 31m 49s
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