Dakar SS2 Team Galag : Another good stage with 11th place and still 7th overall in class

The Dakar organizers had to cancel the marathon stage that was going to happen during stages 2 and 3, because of heavy rain that made the bivouac inaccessible. Though, the special stage remained the same with a longer last liaison section to Al Qaisumah bivouac we were supposed to reach only tomorrow.

Above all, not having a marathon stage is a good relief for all competitors that will not, in consequence, be forced to maintain their cars without any help of mechanical crews. Those 2 days will be like « normal stages, if we may say…

Stage 2: 338km and the real first dune ridges to cross.
Starting with fast and sandy tracks on a large plateau, it was imperative too respect the caps with a lot of tracks becoming more and more sinuous and undulating between little dunes. Then dune ridges alternated with more sandy tracks before the end of the stage that consist of bigger and nicer dunes, the finishing on a very fast sandy plateau around the finish of the stage.

Another good stage with 11th place and still 7th overall in class
Not taking any risks but keeping the right pace was the main goal for today’s stage. This is exactly what Jerome and Mika did. There was no navigation mistakes nor punctures, but the buggy got stuck on the top of a dune at some point and they had to use the shovel to take the buggy out of that trap.

Not putting « the cart before the horse » was the main goal and that’s « miss accomplished » for now. We will keep doing it that way because the rally is still very very, very long!

Jerome de Sadeleer – Driver : « I took zero risk and drove pretty well in the dunes, except we got stuck stupidly on top of one of them. I was maybe too precocious and not going fast enough. So, we had to dig for 15 minutes to take the car out the sand. I was boiling inside as we lost some places there but that’s not too important, as I must focus on the overall classification when the rally will finish »

Mika Metge – Navigator : « We haven’t done any mistake with navigation, except being stuck once and I don’t remember having used the shovel like that never before in my racing career! That’s too bad as after this unfortunate event Jerome drove very well and understood the way to cross the dunes. We raced a few T3 car all day long and I must say the pace we have now is a mix between security and performance »

Cyril Neveu – Team Manager : « I had no doubt Jerome could drive very well on the hard pack, ad he proved it, but he still has to learn how to handle the car when in dune ridges. That’s the particularity of the Dakar and that’s where the best do the difference. This means the learning curve is leveling up and I’m sure it is just a matter of a couple of days and stages before he will be able to master the complexity of driving in the sand dunes »

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