COMMUNIQUE 10 10 January 2001 El Ghallaouiya - Atar Liaison 5 km - SS 435 km - Total 440 km

Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero Evolution Team Nisseki Mitsubishi Ralliart H. Masuoka / P. Maimon

Japanese driver Hiroshi Masuoka stormed into the lead of the Paris-Dakar Rally today, January 10, driving a Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero. Once the going got tough in the Saharan dunes in Mauritania, the Mitsubishi drivers were in their element, with German lady Jutta Kleinschmidt climbing to fourth overall in her similar Mitsubishi. Masuoka, co-driven by Frenchman Pascal Maimon, now holds a comfortable 35m lead at the halfway point in Atar. The 435 km special stage between El Ghallaouiya and Atar was always going to be a dramatic test of man and machine. The last stage before a rest day is traditionally a challenging one, and the 10th leg of the Dakar 2001 was no exception. Most of the stage was run over desert sand, with sweeping, fast and twisty sections interspersed with massive sand dunes and ergs. It was in the dunes that the leaderboard was turned on its head and the drama unfolded in temperatures of over 32 degrees Celsius. Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero Evolution Team Nisseki Mitsubishi Ralliart H. Masuoka / P. Maimon Overnight leader Jose Maria Servia soon lost his tenuous grip on the rally when late in the morning he became stuck in the sand in his buggy. Masuoka swept past in his Mitsubishi, as did Kleinschmidt, and it soon became clear that Servia was going to be there for some time - in fact it was over two hours before the buggy finally got going again. By contrast, a beaming Masuoka emerged from the trial and tribulations of a hot, gruelling and dusty day with a broad smile on his face at Atar. But it was not all smooth sailing, as he revealed: "The sand was very soft and it was a long, hard day. I had a puncture after 100 km, but other than at we drove hard all the way. The car’s temperature rose to its maximum - it was a hot day and a lot of the time we were at low speed but with maximum revs in first and second gears. Very hard on the car, but nothing went wrong. Tomorrow I’ll relax, but from then on, we’ll have to concentrate all the way to Dakar". Kleinschmidt, too had a puncture in her Mitsubishi, co-driven by fellow German Andreas Schulz. She reported: "Today was OK. In the morning we had a bad suspension set-up and the tyre pressure weren’t right. We passed the first dunes OK, then there were some big stones so we were careful. The dunes were so, so soft and it was so easy to get stuck. Just before the fourth passage control we had a puncture, but after that we went flat out to the finish. This has been the hardest stage of the Dakar so far". Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero Team Mitsubishi Germany J. Kleinschmidt / A. Schulz Portuguese driver Carlos Sousa was also pleased with his progress in the Mitsubishi L200. He now lies third overall, just behind second placed buggy driver Jean-Louis Schlesser. He said: "It was hard today. We had a puncture in the last few kilometres. I didn’t drive too fast today because it was better to concentrate on just finishing the stage. This stage was very difficult. Maximum revs in the dunes and that’s very hard on the engine and gearbox". Two of the pre-event favourites for Dakar victory were less enthusiastic about the day’s events, however. French pair Jean-Pierre Fontenay and Gilles Picard had dropped from second to third yesterday when they flipped their Mitsubishi onto its side. And today misfortune struck again when, possibly as a result of yesterday’s accident, a nut came off the front suspension just 40 km before the finish, and the car rolled at full speed. Picard reported: "We were perfect until then. When the nut came off, so did the front right wheel while we were flat out at 150 km/h and the car rolled. It took us two hours to fix it". Fontenay and Picard are now down in sixth place, more than two hours behind Masuoka. Kenjiro Shinozuka of Japan, and his British co-driver Fred Gallagher, are also out of the running in their Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero. After yesterday’s problems, they decided just to drive gently through the stage today, with all hope of victory gone. Said Shinozuka: "Today we just drove. Nothing happened". And Gallagher admitted: "We had no motivation today after our 20 hour penalty yesterday. We’ll just drive on and support the other Mitsubishi crews". The going was very tough for the privateers further down the field. Brazilian Klever Kolberg, driving a diesel-powered Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero revealed: "The first dunes were very difficult. The tube to the intercooler broke today, and as it was very, very hot, we had to drive slowly. We also lost about 30 minutes isolating the intercooler. We were driving well until the problem occurred about 230 km into the stage. It’s a rest day tomorrow, and that’s good". After such a tough and demanding day, the remaining competitors in this year’s Paris-Dakar Rally will be glad of the rest in Atar tomorrow. But after that, they’ll hit the desert once more, for another week of hard driving to Dakar.

Leg 10 - El Ghallaouiya - Atar SS 10 - 435.00 km - Wednesday 10 January

Times on SS 10 1 H.MASUOKA P.MAIMON MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 5.10.24.0 2 J.L.SCHLESSER H.MAGNE SCHLESSER BUGGY RENAULT MEGANE 5.20.02.0 +9.38.0 3 J.KLEINSCHMIDT A.SCHULZ MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 5.25.35.0 +15.11.0 4 C.SOUSA J.M.POLATO MITSUBISHI L200 STRAKAR 5.27.16.0 +16.52.0 5 S.HENRARD J.M.MARTINEZ VOLKSWAGEN BUGGY 5.40.29.0 +30.05.0 6 T.DELAVERGNE J.DUBOIS NISSAN TERRANO 6.02.53.0 +52.29.0 7 B.SABY T.DELLI ZOTI FORD RANGER PROTRUCK 6.03.31.0 +53.07.0 8 P.WAMBERGUE P.REY FORD RANGER PROTRUCK 6.06.30.0 +56.06.0 9 K.SHINOZUKA F.GALLAGHER MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 6.08.56.0 +58.32.0 10 G.DE MEVIUS A.GUEHENNEC NISSAN TERRANO 6.20.38.0 +1.10.14.0 11 H.PESCAROLO S.DE LIEDEKERKE NISSAN TERRANO 6.42.46.0 +1.32.22.0 12 L.BOURGNON G.LENEVEU NISSAN TERRANO 6.47.28.0 +1.37.04.0 13 S.PETERHANSEL W.ALCARAZ NISSAN TERRANO 6.53.40.0 +1.43.16.0 14 J.F.GUINOT M.KROISS NISSAN TERRANO 6.56.56.0 +1.46.32.0 15 M.PRIETO A.VELHINHO MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 7.00.32.0 +1.50.08.0 20 K.KOLBERG B.CATTARELLI MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 7.21.38.0 +2.11.14.0 21 J.M.SERVIA J.M.LURQUIN SCHLESSER BUGGY RENAULT MEGANE 7.23.43.0 +2.13.19.0 25 J.P.FONTENAY G.PICARD MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 7.32.19.0 +2.21.55.0

Overall after SS 10 1 H.MASUOKA P.MAIMON MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 29.26.16.0 2 J.L.SCHLESSER H.MAGNE SCHLESSER BUGGY RENAULT MEGANE 30.01.16.0 +35.00.0 3 C.SOUSA J.M.POLATO MITSUBISHI L200 STRAKAR 30.04.45.0 +38.29.0 4 J.KLEINSCHMIDT A.SCHULZ MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 30.11.38.0 +45.22.0 5 J.M.SERVIA J.M.LURQUIN SCHLESSER BUGGY RENAULT MEGANE 31.09.41.0 +1.43.25.0 6 J.P.FONTENAY G.PICARD MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 31.37.15.0 +2.10.59.0 7 T.DELAVERGNE J.DUBOIS NISSAN TERRANO 31.52.34.0 +2.26.18.0 8 S.HENRARD J.M.MARTINEZ VOLKSWAGEN BUGGY 32.25.51.0 +2.59.35.0 9 G.DE MEVIUS A.GUEHENNEC NISSAN TERRANO 33.23.00.0 +3.56.44.0 10 B.SABY T.DELLI ZOTI FORD RANGER PROTRUCK 33.38.21.0 +4.12.05.0 11 S.PETERHANSEL W.ALCARAZ NISSAN TERRANO 34.50.49.0 +5.24.33.0 12 K.KOLBERG B.CATTARELLI MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 35.24.34.0 +5.58.18.0 13 J.F.GUINOT M.KROISS NISSAN TERRANO 35.52.58.0 +6.26.42.0 15 L.BOURGNON G.LENEVEU NISSAN TERRANO 36.10.26.0 +6.44.10.0 16 M.PRIETO A.VELHINHO MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 36.33.34.0 +7.07.18.0 17 H.PESCAROLO S.DE LIEDEKERKE NISSAN TERRANO 37.21.12.0 +7.54.56.0 51 K.SHINOZUKA F.GALLAGHER MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 63.12.42.0 +33.46.26.0 54 P.WAMBERGUE P.REY FORD RANGER PROTRUCK 69.28.40.0 +40.02.24.0