World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies

31.Oct.2001

Rd.9 UAE Marlboro Desert Challenge 2001
FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies

[SS1 (Abu Dhabi - Liwa 509.20km/ss415km) ]

KLEINSCHMIDT WELL PLACED
TO ATTACK IN EASTERN DESERTS

Dense fog causes two-hour delay at start

Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero
Jutta Kleinschmidt / Andreas Schultz
(30.Oct.2001)

Germany's Jutta Kleinschmidt started this morning's opening desert section of the UAE Marlboro Desert Challenge, the final round of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies, in a lowly 34th place after yesterday's Prologue stage.

But she was soon moving up the leaderboard as the event headed away from the official start on the Corniche in Abu Dhabi and into a 369 kms selective stage across the Manassir Plateau and on to the Liwa Hotel, near to the border with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for the first overnight halt.

At the end of the day she had moved up to second place in the overall standings, a little under 14 minutes behind the overnight leader, defending World Champion Jean-Louis Schlesser.

"It was a long day today," confessed Jutta. "We had the delay this morning to ensure the safety of competitors and then we had a couple of punctures. Then we were a little lost near the end of the stage with a confusing route instruction."

The entire UAE Desert Challenge caravan had left Dubai shortly before dawn in dense fog, with visibility down to less than 50 metres in places. This fog had failed to clear sufficiently by 9am and the organisers took the decision to delay the official start on safety grounds, a spokesman claiming that safety helicopters were unable to take off in such adverse weather conditions.

"Safety is always of paramount importance on world rallies," insisted Mohammed bin Sulayem, chairman of the organising committee. "It was just not possible to start the stage without the support of our helicopters."

A second decision was also taken to reduce the stage length from 415 kms to 369 kms to lessen the risk of some backmarkers completing the tricky final section through soft sand in darkness.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) the route heads due east from Liwa at 06.30 towards Arada, near the border with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Competitors press on through the Eastern region of the Rub Al-Khali, traversing a diverse range of terrain including tricky dunes and fast compact sand sections.

OVERALL CLASSIFICATION AFTER SS1

	DRIVER / CO-DRIVER	CAR	NAT.	TIME	DIFF
1	J.L.Schlesser/H.Magne	Schlesser Buggy Renault Megane	F	3.20.40
2	J.Kleinschmidt/A.Schultz	Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero	D	3.34.05	13.25
3	V.Rakityanskiy/V.Demianenko	Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero	RUS	3.57.57	37.17
4	J.P.Strugo/Y.Ferri	Mercedes ML 430	F	4.00.51	40.11
5	Y.Bilhili/K.Al-Kendi	Chevrolet Tahoe	UAE	4.04.09	43.29
6	I.El-Hemrani/I.Nabhan	Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero	UAE	4.14.01	53.21
7	B.Garland/S.Green	Holden Jackaroo	AUS	4.16.32	55.52

Nationalities:
AUS=Australia / D=Germany / F=France / RU=Burundi / RUS=Russia / UAE=United Arab Emirates

PRE-EVENT Release | Prologue stage | ss1 | ss2 | ss3 | ss4

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