I’m really happy for price. It’s nice to see some new blood doing well at the Dakar. Though, the first 5 bikes are still in less than 45 min of each other, and god knows everything could change in 3 stages. As for me, I’m rooting for Meo (I’m French after all :)). First Dakar and he has been doing really well, no…

Aaaand it was just announced that Carlos Sainz had to abandon after his mechanical problems of yesterday. He apparently broke a spacer located between the engine and the gearbox, but after inspection it seemed to have caused damage to other parts of the car, and per regulations it wasn’t allowed to continue.

And another one if you count Romain Dumas, though he is running for a private team, he still has a 2008 DKR (albeit last year’s car with some improvements).

Unless you’re a big team, then you have a nice motorhome.

He, Paulo Goncalves, got really, really lucky. Broke his engine in the middle of stage 9 but luckily just at the waypoint where they decided to stop the stage (because of too hot, it was approaching 46/47 °C at 10 in the morn’). No assistance between stage 9 and 10 because it was a marathon stage, but he managed to…

Yeah, and unless he has a problem with the car, he should be set for overall victory (I think the remaining stages are a bit like the 1st week, so shouldn’t have any troubles on them)

Would probably cost you an arm and a leg (at least) though. Like this £275,000 Fiesta WRC (http://www.rallycarsforsale.net/ads/fiesta-wrc…)

Wait for your service team. And that’s the all purpose behind the truck category at the Dakar, so that teams can have a fast response vehicles on the stage, since racers helping each other is authorized. Many privateer rely on private assistance to help them, and they usually all have trucks running (look-up Team…

Exactly. While there’s not many reel privateer that can compete for the top spots, there’s still a bunch of them who are doing a nice race. From a custom built buggy (Century, currently 18) to almost factory efforts (Renault Duster, supported by Renault Argentina, 19) and former factory vehicles, there’s a bunch of…

Or he might just have a bad car. Mark Corbett and his purpose built Century is doing quite well (he is currently 18), and, while not really a full-on privateer (but not a proper factory effort either), the Renault Duster Team is doing good too. Romain Dumas, who’s a privateer, but running on a Peugeot (last year’s car…

Much better than last year. Sainz is leading, Peterhansel is second. Desprès is lagging behind but not that far (he is currently 10), and Loeb, while having lost valuable time after his crash on stage 8 and being sanded in today, is still 13 for now. And Romain Dumas, on his 2008 DKR+ (which is an evolution of last…

He did a phone interview on French TV. Baud was on the piste, doing something like 140/150 kph when the shepperd wandered in front of the car, looking at the ground. Baud wanted to avoid him going to the side, but he couldn’t because of big ditches that would have caused the car to flip (and most likely resulting in…

AH! I was going to post that. Shor lived, kind of cheesy show. But what a nice car roaster they had on it.

Loeb and Hirvonen (and Protok) once again prove that WRC is one of the best motorsport school. Remember what happened last time a rallymen (and world champions) entered the Dakar on a Peugeot? 5 victories back to back (4 from Vatanen and 1 Kannkkunen). Oh and Vatanen destroyed the competition at Pikes Peak. Sounds…

Definitely. The two stages they did for now are basically WRC stages. Well, except for the mud :)

Well it’s not really complicated, it’s just logistics. Renault does the same thing with the Clio RS. The engines are shipped to the Alpine Renault factory in Douai from Japan, while the shells of the car come unpainted from the Sandouville Renault plant where the Clio is mainly assembled. Most of the other parts of…

Thank you. Thank you so much for explaining that!

Oh, I don’t feel bad at all saying that radical Muslims are pieces of shit. I feel bad about the fact that people will direct their anger towards every Muslim. It was bad enough in January, it’s going to be worse now, and I'm sad about it...

That’s exactly what I'm afraid of. I believe the radicalisation of young people is due to this discrimination, and things are not going to get better....

I’m French, living in Auckland, 10,000 miles away.... I feel sick. I always felt quite safe in France, but now :/