Summary of the Day: Sainz wins stage and clusters Sertões leadership

Edu Piano during the eight day of the Rally (foto: Theo Ribeiro/ www.webventure.com.br)

Only two stages to the end of Sertões International Rally, the dispute between cars is exciting. In this Wednesday special, victory went to the pair Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz, who finished the race in 1h51min04s. Still leaders in their categry, Nasser Al-Attiyah/ Timo Gottschalk finished today special in 1h52min42s placing second. In the general accumulated time, they are mere three seconds ahead of the second place.

Carlos and I are from the same team. Whoever wins the race, Volkswagen will also win. But I sure do want to win. It is the first time I drive the Touareg, and the first time I race in Brazil, so it will be very nice to win here, said Nasser, trying to be diplomatic in his team.

Twice Speed Rally world champion, Spanish pilot Carlos Sainz expects getting still better results in the last specials. Ill start the race and I expect everything goes all right. Yesterday, we ended up loosing too much time due to temperature problems, and we had to stop many times, what has held us back. Now, were trying to recover, said the Spanish pilot.

The German factory team still didnt manage to guarantee the third place with Mauricio Neves/ Eduardo Bampi, who completed the race in 1h56min50s. The section between Petrolina (PE) and Juazeiro do Norte (CE) was one of the slowest in the whole rally. In total, they drove 483 kilometers, 65 kilometers initial liaison, 176 kilometers final liaison, and 197 kilometers of special. The section offered the pilots all kinds of terrain, unlike the day before, when all they faced was sand. The stage before the last in Sertões 09 will drive from Juazeiro do Norte (CE) Caicó (RN)

Among the trucks, sovereignty stays with Edu Piano and Solon Mendes, who finished the stage in 2h17min47s. The pair crossed the finish line almost 17 minutes ahead of the second place, Amable Barrasa/ Guilherme Petrine, 2h34min44s. Third team to arrive to Juazeiro do Norte was Ulysses Marinzeck/ Evandro Bautz/ José Carvalho.

While on cars the difference between first and second places is only three seconds, on bikes Zé Hélio has around an hour of advantage over the second place, Denísio do Nascimento. In his seventh victory in this competition, the leader, who lost only on Friday to the Polish pilot Jakub Przygonski, concluded the special in 2h20min20s. Juca Bala had the second best time, finishing in 2h23min19s. Jakub Przygonski came right after him, only 28 seconds behind. Denísio do Nascimento that is still the second place in general classification, finished the special in 2h24min37s placing fourth.

The eight stage of the rally showed surprise among quads. Heronaldo de Andrade won the section, leaving the leaders behind. Carlo Collet placed second in the day. This Wednesday stage was good for me, but I was trying to catch up time, and had a little mechanical problem. I lost around 15 or20 minutes, so now, I have to manage my second place, said Collet.

Cristiano Sousa is still the leader, and he placed third today, when he raced hard against Collet. Their time difference is only 9 seconds.

Wednesday results:

Cars:

1) Carlos Sainz/ Lucas Cruz 1h51min04s
2) Nasser Al-Attiyah/ Timo Gottschalk 1h52min42s
3) Mauricio Neves/ Eduardo Bampi 1h56min50s

Trucks:

1) Edu Paino/ Solon Mendes 2h17min47s
2) Amable Barrasa/ Guilherme Petrine 2h34min44s
3) Ulysses Marinzeck/ Evadro Bautz/ Jose Carvalho 2h50min56s

Bikes:

1) Zé Hélio 2h20min20
2) Juca Bala 2h23min19
3) Jakub Przygonski 2h23min47

Quads:

1) Heronaldo de Andrade 2h56min26s
2) Carlo Collet 3h00min19s
3) Cristiano Sousa 3h00min22s

General classification

Cars:

1) Nasser Al-Attiyah/ Timo Gottschalk 26h13min44s70
2) Carlos Sainz / Lucas Cruz 26h13min48s60
3) Jean Azevedo/ Youssef Haddad 29h25min13s30

Trucks:

1) Amable Barrasa/ Guilherme Petrine 24h15min54s4
2) Edu Piano/ Davi Fonseca/ Solon Mendes 24h19min01s4
3) Guido Salvini/ Fernando Chwaigert/ Weidner Moreira 27h05min43s7

Bikes:

1) Zé Hélio – 30h57min55s1
2) Denisio Nascimento 31h56min48s9
3) Juca Bala 32h22min18s6

Quads:

1) Cristiano Sousa 36h40min31s0
2) Carlo Collet 37h20min09s3
3) Bruno Sperancini 41h35min58s8

Este texto foi escrito por: Redação Webventure