Tuesday, 3rd January 2012

Carlos Sousa gets two places overall back to top-10 despite a strong flu
In spite of having the flu, Carlos Sousa got on well in the difficult stage today, where he got two places overall and the position of best Portuguese driver among the cars. Unfortunately he lost time behind an inattentive Argentinian driver and also on a stop to change another flat tire

In a physically very demanding stage, which included two paths at about 3 thousand meters high, rocky tracks and several river crossings, Carlos Sousa faced some several ordeals, but he managed to get two places overall back to the top-10, despite the strong flu that hindered him during the whole day. It was an extremely difficult day. I had a rough night and woke up with the flu. Despite the medication, I felt under the weather and never at 100 per cent, today of all days that we had to face such a tough and demanding stage, affirmed the driver of Team Great Wall Motors when he arrived to San Juan, after a distance of 499 km for the cars, from which 208 corresponded to the third special stage of this Dakar 2012. Despite everything, we didnt lose much time after all and I can only be glad that I overcame one more day, on which he had another flat tire and were blocked for most of the stage by the Argentinian driver from Toyota, explained Carlos Sousa, referring to Lucio Alvarezs poor sportsmanship, who he reached soon after the first 40 km of the stage. We were being faster in track, but he decided not to let us pass When we finally passed him after several attempts, we bumped into a rock and punctured the tire. At the end, we reached him again but he blocked us once more. At the arrival he excused himself by saying that he never saw me behind him Well, it was a pity, because we were driving fast at the end and could have taken some good three minutes to our final time, complained Carlos Sousa, who like yesterday, finished the

stage in the 11th position overall, losing 8m21s to the winner, the MINI from the Spaniard Joan Roma. The pace at the front of the race is very strong and the fight is pretty fierce, since the first five positions are separated by a bit more than two minutes! Personally I was counting on losing some time in these first stages, due to a lack of competitive pace and a need to adapt myself to the car. The engine is very good, but there are still some adjustments to be made to the suspension, because I still feel the cars rear end slipping Its something we will have correct during the next few days, concluded the best Portuguese car driver, occupying the 9th place overall. As for the other official driver of Team Great Wall Motors, the Chinese Zhou Yong, he is passing up the order overall. After the initial problems he managed to be the 25th fastest driver in todays stage in his HAVAL SUV. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the drivers will face the longest stage from this edition in Argentina, in a very demanding track in terms of navigation, which will connect San Juan to Chilecito. With a total of 750 km, the fourth stage of Dakar 2012 will include a special stage of 326 km filled with traps, which will therefore demand full concentration in the gear shifts, especially when crossing the dry rivers and canyons in the province of La Roja. According to the Organization, this stage can really be decisive to some favorite drivers aspirations, and it is likely that some teams will accumulate a considerable delay when arriving to. STAGE 3 Cl. Driver/Co-driver 1st Roma/Prin 2nd Holowczyc/Fortin 3rd Al-Attiyah/Cruz 4th De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz 5th Gordon/Campbell () 11th SOUSA/GARCIN 25th ZHOU/MAIMON

Car MINI MINI Hummer Toyota Hummer GREAT WALL GREAT WALL

Time/Dif. 2h26m51s + 1m09s + 1m29s + 1m33s + 2m08s + 8m21s + 26m39s

OVERALL AFTER STAGE 2 Cl. Driver/Co-driver 1st Holowczyc/Fortin 2nd Gordon/Campbell 3rd De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz 4th Roma/Prin 5th Peterhansel/Cottret () 9th 87th

Car MINI Hummer Toyota MINI MINI

Time/Dif. 5h51m06s + 54s + 1m40s + 1m50s + 2m41s

SOUSA/GARCIN ZHOU/MAIMON

GREAT WALL GREAT WALL

+ 21m46s + 4h54m01s