The Portuguese driver Elisabete Jacinto finished the fifth stage of the Morocco Desert Challenge, which took place Thursday between Fezzou and Merzouga, in the eighth place among the trucks. The team took 05:11:01 hours to complete the 275 timed kilometers that composed this difficult journey that included the crossing of Erg Ouzina and Chebbi.

In two days the Portuguese managed to recover nine places in the general ranking and now ascended two positions occupying the seventh position of the general classification of their class where 17 teams are currently competing.

Elisabete Jacinto, José Marques and Marco Cochinho completed the stage without registering any problems, just 31 minutes from the Czech Ales Loprais who leads the overall classification of the T4 and which was today the third fastest truck in the race with his Tatra Prototype.

In spite of the difficulties imposed by the selective sector, Elisabete Jacinto was able to overcome all the obstacles and once again she proves the consistency of her progress: "The stage went well but it was very arduous and tiring. We didn’t have great misfortunes because we did everything very calmly, however, the sand passes are always complex. In the Erg Ouzina, although the layout didn’t present great difficulties, we caught a big scare."

She continued: "We were leaving a very high dune and the truck made an incredible flight. We were very lucky to have stopped with all four wheels on the ground because at one point I even thought I was going to overturn. But it was the Erg Chebbi's pass that gave us more headaches. It was particularly difficult because we entered the dunes at noon and we couldn’t see anything of the terrain. We chose to walk calmly because we didn’t want to make bad choices and fortunately all went well."

Stage Results SS05 Thursday TRUCKS Top 10

01) Van Kasteren / Van Hoof / Van den Bosch I Renault I 04:22:26 I 00:00:00
02) Huzink / Antonius / Buursen I Renault I 04:39:22 I 00:16:56
03) Loprais / Janda / Alcayna I Tatra Proto I 04:40:23 I 00:17:57
04) Van den Brink / Van den Brink / De Graaf I Renault I 04:43:03 I 00:20:37
05) Vratny / Martinec / Miskolci I Tatra I 04:57:57 I 00:35:31
06) Voerman / Stubbs / Kupper I MAN TGS I 05:00:49 I 00:38:23
07) Verheyden / Keysers / Schildermans I DAF I 05:07:32 I 00:45:06
08) Jacinto / Marques / Cochinho I MAN TGS I 05:11:01 I 00:48:35
09) Fazekas / Csakany / Horn I Scania I 05:18:45 I 00:56:19
10) Timmermans / Vervoort / Roothans I DAF I 05:23:57 I 01:01:31

Overall Rankings TRUCKS Top 10 after SS05

01) Loprais / Janda / Alcayna I Tatra Proto I 21:40:36 I 00:00:00
02) Van den Brink / Van den Brink / De Graaf I Renault I 22:18:03 I 00:37:27
03) Verheyden / Keysers / Schildermans I DAF I 25:22:04 I 03:41:28
04) Vratny / Martinec / Miskolci I Tatra I 26:25:03 I 04:44:27
05) Timmermans / Vervoort / Roothans I DAF I 26:29:32 I 04:48:56
06) Schoones / Van der Donk / Schoones I DAF I 26:34:38 I 04:54:02
07) Jacinto / Marques / Cochinho I MAN I 27:37:56 I 05:57:20
08) Bouwens / Berghmans / Boerboom I Iveco I 27:45:54 I 06:05:18
09) Van Kasteren / Van Hoof / Van den Bosch I Renault I 28:20:37 I 06:40:01
10) Fazekas / Csakany / Horn I Scania I 29:47:28 I 08:06:52





Photos: Morocco Desert Challenge

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