Change in leadership at the Transsyberia Rally 2008 - Team France assumes overall lead - Team Spain wins first special stage in Mongolia

Liaison 1: 59 km
Special stage: 282 km
Liaison 2: 88 km

The 9th stage of the Transsyberia Rally powered by Sony Ericsson left the county of Bajan-Ulgij and led 429 km in eastward direction into the county of Hovd. The first special stage in Mongolia started at 10 am. At intervals of two minutes, the 29 remaining teams started into the 282 km long stretch. Having been the winner of the previous special stage, Team Germany 1 went first, followed by Team France, Team Porsche Russia 1 and Team Middle East, who were in first place in the overall standings.

Before the start, the first special stage in Mongolia was viewed as a difficult task by the paddock. The off-road vehicles started from a 2000 m high plateau and proceeded to steer through valleys and over crests. At 3025 meters, the teams passed the highest point of the rally. The finish- line was on a long straight stretch just outside the town of Hovd.

After 4:45:47 hours Pau Soler and Laia Painado (Team Spain) were the first to cross the finish-line in their Porsche Cayenne S Transsyberia. Team France arrived shortly thereafter, but had a lag of 7:15 minutes because of having started ahead of them. Both teams were happy about their extraordinary performance, when they analyzed the results in the hot steppe outside of Hovd. “We started in ninth position this morning and arrived first. That’s excellent!“, co-pilot Painado beamed. “Laia did an amazing job, the navigation wasn’t easy today“, said Pau Soler and added with a smile: “About 100 km before the finish, we weren’t sure if we were lost, since we couldn’t see any tracks at all, but then we passed Armin Schwarz. We came to a fork in the road, where we went to the right, and Armin drove to the left. We were right.“

The French were also relaxed after this successful Mongolian stage. “We did well en route. We had a puncture, during which the Spaniards overtook us, but we didn’t let that throw us. Now we’re surely number 1 in the overall standings“, Christian Lavieille surmised correctly.

Team Germany 1, today’s third placed, reached the finish with half an hour lag. Pilot Armin Schwarz still seemed satisfied with his result: “We have a certain speed which we also want to maintain in the next days. The rally’s still long, and the car, as well as the team have to keep up.“

Team Portuguese followed next. “We took care not to damage our car too badly during this demanding stretch“, explained Pedro Gameiro, who is completely fascinated by Mongolia. “To drive through this country is awesome!“

Inspite of two punctures, the youngsters of the rally, Ryan Millen and Colin Godby, achieved their best result to date, coming in fifth. As the highlights, Colin Godby named the “impressive sceneries and views, as well as the variable tracks: stony in the mountains and level, and good for speeding, in the valleys.“

Team Middle East, who had led the rally in the overall standings up to now, had to drop out of the rally today. The pilot of the Porsche Cayenne S Transsyberia, Said Rashid Al Hajri from Doha Qatar, overlooked a bump in the road, and injured himself during the hard landing. The 51-year old is currently in the hospital in Hovd for observation and with a suspected back injury. Navigator Tim Trenker remained unharmed.

Tomorrow the Transsyberia Rally 2008 powered by Sony Ericsson is continuing with the 316 km long 10th stage. It will lead from the camp in Mankhan to Darvi.

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