Barcelona - Dakar

[colinmcrailes]

Who will win this year's rally?
Any favourites?
What's the best car in the race?

[cooperluke]

Carlos Sousa!! The World Champion! And Portuguese... BTW!!

[TopGearNL]

I think at the cars either a Volkswagen or Mitsubishi
At the Motorcycle one of the Repsol drivers
At the trucks I hope Gerard de Rooy ( or any other dutchmen) but I fear for the Kamaz and Tatra :shock:

[dingo]

well McRae has the overall lead and I'd like to see him win overall. :D
BTW, the Aussie rider Caldecott won the bike stage today and is 2nd overall - great news. :D

[EnzoLover]

Like cooperluke :) said,

Carlos Sousa with a Nissan

[dingo]

I am just watching the nightly highlight show as I write this, and yes I've seen 'McCrash' has retired from the event. :(
Oh well, I'll go for Vatanen or Kankunen instead.....I like the old veterans who never stop. :)

[dingo]

I ust saw that Robbie Gordon also crashed out :( , it seems the Dakar is made up of ex-WRC rally drivers :wink:

[dingo]

I thought Kankkunen drove in the WRC, he did a season which Subaru a few years ago.....or am I wrong?

[TopGearNL]

I heard that a neon light exploded in the service area and that a fire was the result of that and burned some material in the service area :|

I also heard that the Russian truckdriver for Kamaz Markeev last night tested his truck outside the service area to test the setup for his truck and that they had a really bad crash and were injured :shock:

[TopGearNL]

Yes you are right, I just saw the images it was a gas bottle indeed, while they were cooking :?

Anybody has any news about Markeev and his Kamaz :?: :|

[jakaracman]

In fact... Kankkunen and Vatanen never were WRC drivers... they competed in Gr. B and Gr. A... but in a rallye era where you had the Safari, the "old" Montecarlo... and not the ultra-fast-and-short stages that we have today... :D They're another kind of rallye drivers... may be Carlos Sainz as well is one of them... but you've seen McCrash... too fast... he doesn't know when to attack and when to don't attack.
Kankkunen drove a WRC. So di Vatanen, bot only a few times ...

[dingo]

^ did you read dani's reply to that, he already stated he made a mistake about Kankkunen. :wink: I agree with him on Vatanen though, I can't recall him driving in the WRC :)

[dingo]

Thats very sad news - I think something will have to change, people won't accept this many deaths :(

[jakaracman]

RIP.
2 per race is quite normal for Dakar.

[TT]

I am still shocked :(

[st-anger]

...we´re following "P-D 05" as much as we can - as every year because Rally´s not only my favourite motorsport and after the death of Richard Sainct last year, Perez just some hours before Fabrizio the Dakar again took a very very special driver :( :( :(

...always very very sad for ppl who´re also in motorsports, it´s been the topic today at work, and everyone´s been in a sad mood... :|


RIP Jose Manuel Perez & Fabrizio Meoni

[ikon2003]

Shoot, that's not good news about those deaths. I don't follow the Dakar rally that closely, but I have a few awesome vid clips and it definitely looks like a rugged race.

Very unfortunate that they died during the race.

[TopGearNL]

I really had tears wen I watched it, I don't cry very often but when I am deeply moved I do, so you can imagine what I felt :(

First R. Sainct and now Meoni

As they said, I think I and many agree with this: He died while doing one of his favorite things.

He should have stopped last year he really had but thats Meoni eh, always willing to push that bit further, one of the things I liked of him.

A real shame.....