 'Estoril-Marrakech: Filipe Campos kept the lead but Novitskiy is closer' Persbericht: ACP
Foto: ACP
Filipe Campos (BMW X3CC), the only leader so far of the Rally TT Vodafone Estoril-Portimão-Marrakech, kept his first place after the fifth day of the third round of Cross Country Rally World Cup. The Porto's driver managed to hold the more predictable attack Leonid Novitskiy (BMW X3CC) in the second stage held in Morocco (Rachidia Er/Er Rachidia, with 338.4 km) and will start tomorrow's Erfourd stage as the fastest driver of the race organized by Automóvel Club de Portugal.
'It was a different day than I'm used to. No references, no times information along the route. Only at the end is that he knew if we had been good or bad! We are left to ourselves and this is a great challenge. In terms of navigation all went well and I took Novitskiy trails, thinking if he was able to pass, so do I. Only when I reached the first dune - a really wall! - I was not so sure if I would be able to cross it... But here I am at the arrival.'
With two wins in stages so far, both in Morocco, Novitskiy still attacks the first place, seeing the difference to the BMW colleague decreasing every day. 'Today things were going well, but I had a puncture at Km 100, having to stop to change the wheel and I lost a few minutes, so our difference in the end could be much higher,' said the Russian.
Keeping a tune very well balanced, Ricardo Leal dos Santos/Paulo Fiuza were fourth at the passage of both check controls, a position he held at the end of the day, at Er Rachidia and will occupy the third position, climbing one place in the classification: 'One really Dakar stage, with many stones, ditches and sand dunes. Once there, the problem is with the tires because as we cannot take out much air from the tires as we risk to have a puncture in the rocky places. Everything went well in a typically African stage', said Coimbra's driver.
Just behind Eric Vigouroux had a stage without any problem, so it is barely three minutes of the podium. 'Today was a good day, no problems at Chevrolet and accurate navigation. A nice stage.'
Classification
Pos Team Car Time
1st Filipe Campos / Jaime Baptista BMW X3CC 13h03m59s
2nd Leonid Novitskiy / Andreas Schulz BMW X3CC at 6m44s
3rd Ricardo Leal dos Santos / Paulo Fiuza BMW X5 at 54m35s
4th Eric Vigouroux / Alex Winocq Chevrolet Silverado at 57m02s
5th Hélder Oliveira / José Marques Nissan Pathfinder at 1h26m34s |
