8/3/2019 Press CS 5jan ETAPA5 Dakar2012 - Ing

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Thursday, 5th January 2012

Carlos Sousa (7th

overall) moves up

for the third consecutive day Carlos Sousa, driving the SUV Haval from Team Great Wall Motors, finished the fifth

stage of the Dakar in the seventh position, climbing up to the same position overall,

ten minutes ahead Nasser Al-Attiyah, winner of the race in 2011

In a stage that was not so difficult as most of the competitors expected it to be,

especially due to the famous white dunes of Fiambal, Carlos Sousa stood out once

more, getting the seventh best time in the stage and moving up to the same position

overall, gaining almost ten minutes to the winner of the last edition, Nasser Al-Attiyah.

The temperature finally dropped during this fifth and last stage in Argentinian

territory. In fact, the Organization was forced to shorten the first 24 km of the stage

expected to be 177 km long due to the heavy rain that fell the day before on this

usually arid zone.

I have already done this stage in 2010 and at that time it was all much more

complicated. Fortunately, it wasnt so hot today as it had been on the last few days,

and even crossing the dunes was calm. I decided to be cautious sometimes too

cautious -, so that the engine didnt overheat, as it happened to Zhou Young on thefirst day, revealed the Portuguese driver when he arrived at Fiambal.

This situation has been concerning the team, because we had the same problem

when we were testing the car in Morocco. In short, it is something we have to deal

with caution throughout the race. After coming to this position overall, it will be very

difficult to do much better, considering the potential of the other teams and cars

added Carlos Sousa, at the end of a day that he won more than 5 minutes to Giniel de

Villiers (Toyota) and got even further from the drivers behind him.

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8/3/2019 Press CS 5jan ETAPA5 Dakar2012 - Ing

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After almost one third of the race, the Portuguese driver of Great Wall is now a little

more than 40 minutes behind the leader Stphane Peterhansel and less than 10

minutes behind Leonid Novitskiy, who is sixth overall.

Also moving up is his team mate Zhou Yong, who after the delay in the opening stage,

has been improving his position and was 19th in todays stage.

The next two stages of the Dakar are expected to cause more difficulties, especially onSaturday. Tomorrow after crossing the border more than 4.700 meters high, the

drivers will face a tough stage to Copiap, in Chile, with a 247 km special stage on the

brutal dryness of the Atacama Desert.

STAGE 5

Cl. Driver/Co-driver Car Time/Dif.

1st Holowczyc/Fortin MINI 2h10m51s

2nd Gordon/Campbell Hummer + 1m01s

3rd Peterhansel/Cottret MINI + 3m52s4th Roma/Prin MINI + 7m47s

5th Novitskiy/Schulz MINI + 8m18s

6th Leal dos Santos/Fiuza MINI + 9m19s

7th SOUSA/GARCIN GREAT WALL + 8m21s

()

19th ZHOU/MAIMON GREAT WALL + 35m42s

OVERALL AFTER STAGE 5

Cl. Driver/Co-driver Car Time/Dif.

1st Peterhansel/Cottret MINI 11h58m03s

2nd Holowczyc/Fortin MINI + 4m18s

3rd Roma/Prin MINI + 10m39s

4th Gordon/Campbell Hummer + 13m32s

5th De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz Toyota + 21m01s

6th Novitskiy/Schulz MINI + 30m51s

7th SOUSA/GARCIN GREAT WALL + 40m55s

()

39th ZHOU/MAIMON GREAT WALL + 5h59m25s

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