After driving to Sète, France, crossing the sea to reach Tangiers, and finally the journey to the base camp, the D-day has finally arrived. The day the 220 Gazelles will be able to get busy : cover a 2,500 km course, with no timer, trying to cover the distance in the smallest number of kilometres possible, without using navigation systems.
In the Crossover class, the Dacia Dusters from Renault and La Poste finish ahead of Mercedes, who proved to be a serious contender in 2010 : Team 318 (Sylvie DELCOUR and Marie SPEECKAERT - DACIA) are in first place with 7.28 points, just ahead of Team 310 (Sophie BOURDON and Emilie MARTIN - LA POSTE) who trail by only 0.33 points!
The Gazelles' reactions :
"This morning, when I woke up, I felt a little anxious, but I quickly managed to get the good reflexes back from the driving weekend we had" admits Claire.
Same feeling from Sonia, who explains the importance of being able to rely on a good navigation methodology to stay focused.
To get an idea of how many times Julie double checked things, she checked more than thirty times within four hours the course followed, as well as the vehicle's capacity to overcome obstacles according to the terrain's typology.
Audrey, one of the Duster pilots, reminds us of how beautiful the Moroccan landscapes are, the contact with the soil and rocks, and the camels !
Isabelle Charles, a Rallye des Gazelles expert, since it is her 6th participation, considers having done a good prologue. « We went through some rough patches, and wasted a bit of time, but our Duster is a real jetplane ! »
