COMMUNIQUE 5 5 January 2001 Er Rachidia - Ouarzazate Liaison 239 km - SS 333 km - Total 572 km

Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero Team Hewlett Packard Ralliart J.P. Fontenay / G. Picard

Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero driver Jean-Pierre Fontenay of France kept the pressure on the in the Paris-Dakar Rally in Morocco today, holding on in second place to Jean-Louis Schlesser’s buggy. The long 333 km special stage between Er Rachidia and Ouarzazate began with a short, fast section before crossing the sand dunes of the impressive Erg Chebbi. But after that, two-thirds of the stage was held over fast gravel tracks, on which the buggies, with their high top speed, were able to finish ahead of the cars. Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero Team Hewlett Packard Ralliart Jean-Pierre Fontenay Fontenay, navigated by fellow Frenchman Gilles Picard, didn’t put a wheel wrong to end the fifth leg just 4m 14s behind the rally leader. The Mitsubishi driver had been closing in on Schlesser - half way through the stage he was just 2m 31s behind. But he had to back off during the later half of the section as he was blinded by the dust kicked up by Schlesser’s buggy. The other leading Mitsubishis also had a good day, with Japanese driver Hiroshi Masuoka, co-driven by Frenchman Pascal Maimon, moving up from seventh to fifth overall in his Pajero/Montero. He had led going into Africa, but lost a great deal of time yesterday with punctures. Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero Team Nisseki Mitsubishi Ralliart K. Shinozuka / F. Gallagher Fellow Japanese driver and former Dakar winner, Kenjiro Shinozuka, co-driven by British navigator Fred Gallagher, pushed his Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero up from 13th yesterday to eighth today with a dazzling display of fine driving. After being passsed by the charging Masuoka, Jutta Kleinschmidt of Germany and her German partner Andreas Schulz, dropped back a place to seventh in their Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero, and Portuguese Mitsubishi L200 driver Carlos Sousa dropped a place to sixth after being ousted by the flying Japanese Mitsubishi driver. Tonight, the remaining competitors are camping out at Ouarzazate, which is situated on a vast desert plateau near the "Grand Sud", where the Oasis and the Kasbahs meet along the valleys of the Dades and Draa. Tomorrow they face a 305 km competitive section which starts on narrow, winding tracks in the foothills of the Atlas mountains, before following the stony dry riverbed of the Draa to Goulimine on the edge of the Western Sahara Desert.

Leg 5 - Er Rachidia - Ouarzazate SS 5 - 333.00 km - Friday 5 January

Times on SS 5 1 J.M.SERVIA J.M.LURQUIN SCHLESSER BUGGY RENAULT MEGANE 3.25.55.0 2 J.L.SCHLESSER H.MAGNE SCHLESSER BUGGY RENAULT MEGANE 3.27.54.0 +1.59.0 3 J.P.FONTENAY G.PICARD MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 3.28.14.0 +2.19.0 4 T.DELAVERGNE J.DUBOIS NISSAN TERRANO 3.29.51.0 +3.56.0 5 H.MASUOKA P.MAIMON MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 3.32.00.0 +6.05.0 6 K.SHINOZUKA F.GALLAGHER MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 3.32.11.0 +6.16.0 7 J.KLEINSCHMIDT A.SCHULZ MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 3.33.06.0 +7.11.0 8 C.SOUSA J.M.POLATO MITSUBISHI L200 STRAKAR 3.33.08.0 +7.13.0 9 G.MARCY J.P.COTTRET TOYOTA 3.36.29.0 +10.34.0 10 J.L.MONTERDE L.CRUZ NISSAN PATROL GR 3.36.44.0 +10.49.0 11 B.SABY T.DELLI ZOTI FORD RANGER PROTRUCK 3.39.16.0 +13.21.0 12 L.ALPHAND A.DEBRON SCHLESSER RENAULT KANGOO 3.43.50.0 +17.55.0 13 N.BARKAT E.BARKAT MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 3.49.34.0 +23.39.0 14 H.PESCAROLO S.DE LIEDEKERKE NISSAN TERRANO 3.55.59.0 +30.04.0 15 S.HENRARD J.M.MARTINEZ VOLKSWAGEN BUGGY 4.01.18.0 +35.23.0 16 D.SKILTON M.STEVENSON KIA 4.01.34.0 +35.39.0 17 K.KOLBERG B.CATTARELLI MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 4.06.11.0 +40.16.0 18 M.PRIETO A.VELHINHO MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 4.11.35.0 +45.40.0

Overall after SS 5 1 J.L.SCHLESSER H.MAGNE SCHLESSER BUGGY RENAULT MEGANE 5.23.50.0 2 J.P.FONTENAY G.PICARD MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 5.28.04.0 +4.14.0 3 J.M.SERVIA J.M.LURQUIN SCHLESSER BUGGY RENAULT MEGANE 5.29.05.0 +5.15.0 4 T.DELAVERGNE J.DUBOIS NISSAN TERRANO 5.34.42.0 +10.52.0 5 H.MASUOKA P.MAIMON MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 5.38.11.0 +14.21.0 6 C.SOUSA J.M.POLATO MITSUBISHI L200 STRAKAR 5.38.12.0 +14.22.0 7 J.KLEINSCHMIDT A.SCHULZ MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 5.38.33.0 +14.43.0 8 K.SHINOZUKA F.GALLAGHER MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 5.45.25.0 +21.35.0 9 G.MARCY J.P.COTTRET TOYOTA 5.46.21.0 +22.31.0 10 L.ALPHAND A.DEBRON SCHLESSER RENAULT KANGOO 5.55.01.0 +31.11.0 11 N.BARKAT E.BARKAT MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 6.01.48.0 +37.58.0 12 B.SABY T.DELLI ZOTI FORD RANGER PROTRUCK 6.07.29.0 +43.39.0 13 J.L.MONTERDE L.CRUZ NISSAN PATROL GR 6.08.27.0 +44.37.0 14 S.HENRARD J.M.MARTINEZ VOLKSWAGEN BUGGY 6.14.07.0 +50.17.0 15 H.PESCAROLO S.DE LIEDEKERKE NISSAN TERRANO 6.15.14.0 +51.24.0 16 K.KOLBERG B.CATTARELLI MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 6.19.40.0 +55.50.0 17 D.SKILTON M.STEVENSON KIA 6.23.54.0 +1.00.04.0 18 M.PRIETO A.VELHINHO MITSUBISHI PAJERO / MONTERO 6.30.13.0 +1.06.23.0