Carlos, how did this ninth stage go for you?
Today it went very well, the stage was very difficult with a lot of rocks and
portions of soft sand, but overall we came out well.
Tell us about the terrible stage between Zouérat and Tichit,
fought out in the middle of a storm…
It’s my ninth Dakar but I don’t recall having done a stage that
was so hard. There wasn’t a moment where you could allow yourself to relax.
The passages of camel grass were terrible in comparison with what was forecast
in the road book. I’m even wondering if the organisation really went through
the same spot as we did!
You came out sixth in the rankings of this famous stage. How do you
explain such a performance?
We started out in this Dakar knowing that we didn’t have the car to win
because the factory teams are much better prepared and have enormous resources.
Therefore we adopted a rhythm that the car could bear. On the Tichit stage,
we started out very loaded with petrol, and at the beginning I didn’t
take any risks, I drove calmly. On such a long stage, more than 600 kilometres,
if you want to win you start out fast, but that wasn’t our objective.
We started out with the objective of ranking in the first five, which is already
quite an accomplishment. And it happened as we had hoped. The tactic worked.
No navigation error either, which was not the case for the majority
of the competitors…
We made a few little detours but never needlessly. Sometimes it’s better
to go slower to look for the right trajectory, to find the right pass. We drivers
often have too much of a tendency to attack all the time, and this puts the
co-driver in uncomfortable situations. It’s better to allow yourself time
to find the right path.
This is your first race with Thierry Delli-Zotti. One could say that
you quickly found your automatic reflexes…
I’ve done my nine Dakars with eight different co-drivers! With Thierry
it’s going very well. He is very nice, he has a lot of experience and
he doesn’t make mistakes.
How do you feel within the Dessoude Nissan France Team?
I feel fine in this team. Everything was put together at the last minute. I
hadn’t planned to do the Dakar but my sponsors pushed me to participate
because I didn’t do it last year, and the Dakar is a very important event
for a driver who wants to stay at the top. I had to leave Mitsubishi after
eleven years of working together. That was hard but I’ve landed on my
feet, finding myself with Dessoude.
At the beginning of the race you told us that you needed kilometres
to find your reference points at the wheel of the Pickup. How do you feel at
the mid-point of the course?
Now I am completely at ease at the wheel of the Pickup. This evening we are
going to perform a major mechanical operation, to change a large number of parts
to start out again with a car in better shape. Until now we have had to manage.
In a factory team you don’t wait for a part to break before changing it.
When you’re a private driver it’s another story. Now it’s
the machinery that is going to decide our ranking.
What is your objective for Dakar?
I know that I can’t win stages, but I also know that I am capable of not
losing too much time. The goal is to increase the pace every day but always
to keep a margin of safety in order not to damage the vehicle. At the start
I thought that we could finish in the Top 10 and honestly, in view of the number
of factory cars, we couldn’t aspire to more. Our objective was to outdistance
the greatest possible number of official cars. Therefore for the moment we are
exceeding our objectives. I am happy and a little surprised to find myself there
this evening. Let’s hope it lasts!
