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 Saturday, 7th January 2012

Carlos Sousa forced to slow down

at the end due to car overheating

  Confirming the tradition, the stage prior to the rest day was the longest and most 

  feared in this first week of the competition. Strictly achieving the goals set at the

beginning, Carlos Sousa strengthen a place in the top -10 overall of the car 

competition and makes history in his debut with the Chinese team Great Wall…

Today, however, he lost his position overall to Nasser Al-Attiyah, the winner of the

stage, placing himself in eighth with a margin of about half an hour to his most 

direct follower …

Back to the competition, after yesterday’s stage had been cancelled due to bad

weather conditions, Carlos Sousa undertook today, after more than four hours driving,

the longest and most feared stage in the first week of the 2012 Dakar, in a total of 419

km around Copiapó, in Chile.

On the eve of the most deserved rest day, the Portuguese driver relied on the

consistency once more and placed the SUV Haval of Great Wall Motors among the ten

fastest drivers in the stage, in a track that benefitted the superior speed of the

Hummer and that was unquestionably won by Nasser Al-Attiyah.

In short, a result that gave back to the winner of the last edition the seventh place

owned by Carlos Sousa since the fifth stage: “Considering the characteristics of this

stage and the amazing top speed of the Hummer, I knew that it would be very

difficult to hold Nasser back today. Anyway my day wasn’t free from mishaps, as I

had a slow puncture in the first part of the stage. We had to slow down drastically in

the last 70 km, because the car overheated again, even beyond the 117 degrees…”,

complained the driver when he arrived at Copiapó. 

“For some time, we managed to keep Giniel (De Villiers)’s pace, but as soon as we

arrived at the dunes we had to stop twice to lower the water temperature. It was a

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 somehow painful ending, because we had to drive quite slowly and pay close

attention to the temperature rise”, revealed Carlos Sousa, who came ninth in this

stage 39m48s behind Al-Attiyah. 

“As I referred yesterday we have to face facts and realize that from now on we will

be able to climb overall at the expense of other drivers’ problems . In these

circumstances and considering the problems with the engine cooling, we cannot

even think about pursuing the others! It’s not worth it”, assumed the best Portuguesedriver in the car competition, who despite everything gained today a considerable

advantage to his direct followers. 

Tomorrow, Sunday, is the rest day in Copiapó, capital of Atacama region, famous for

been the driest region of the whole planet.

STAGE 7

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

1st Al-Attiyah/Cruz Hummer 3h26m57s

2nd Gordon/Campbell Hummer + 7m30s

3rd Peterhansel/Cottret MINI + 7m53s

4th Holowczyc/Fortin MINI + 14m57s

5th Roma/Périn MINI + 15m19s

(…) 

9th SOUSA/GARCIN GREAT WALL + 39m48s

18th ZHOU/MAIMON GREAT WALL + 1h12m23s

OVERALL AFTER STAGE 7

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

1st Peterhansel/Cottret MINI 15h32m53s

2nd Holowczyc/Fortin MINI + 11m22s

3rd Gordon/Campbell Hummer + 13m09s

4th Roma/Périn MINI + 18m05s

5th De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz Toyota + 34m07s

(…) 

8th SOUSA/GARCIN GREAT WALL + 1h12m50s

29th ZHOU/MAIMON GREAT WALL + 7h04m05s