Bolivia received for the first time the participants of the cars category on the Dakar and it did so with an element that had so far not been in the race: water. More precisely, it was at the end of the day when it rained abundantly, forcing the organisers to control the bivouac in the Salar de Uyuni.
Llovera-Haro were amongst those who had to endure the weather, and despite everything managed to finish the 7th stage in 51st position in 5h18’09”. This time, Llovera-Haro kept a perfect pace during the whole stage.
About the top of the ranking, it is worth mentioning that the Mini remain the winners. In Uyuni, it was the Argentinian Orlando Terranova who obtained his third victory with a time of 3h31’18”. In the general ranking, the differences are minimal; Al-Atttiyah and De Viliers (Toyota) are only 8 minutes apart.
Albert Llovera started the day tired from all the previous racing days, but very motivated to pass the halfway mark of the Dakar; here is what he had to say: Today we enter a new country (Bolivia), which will surely have new challenges in store for us. Albert was right, the tracks with big puddles of water, mud and other obstacles had to be overcome at an altitude close to 4000 metres: We had to be more concentrated than ever to protect as much as possible our engine, and we did it. We will check the most sensitive parts of the buggy and we will try to get some rest. For tomorrow, we have another very long day and it is bound to be very tough.
Llovera can’t overlook his physical state and at the end of each stage, he gets a check up from the medical services of the race: I spend long hours sitting on the backet with sand getting through everywhere and despite all my cares, this two elements combined have caused sores on my bottom. It bothers me a bit, more and more each day, but so far we keep going.
Tomorrow (11th January), the teams will head back to Iquique, but of course through a completely different route to today’s one. This 8th stage will start in Uyuni with a short link section, 24 km long, to start a special stage very demanding, both for the drivers and the cars, which, it is worth reminding, did not get the usual extensive maintenance since the team mechanics were not allowed to work on them overnight. The special will be 784 km long (the first 600 km at an altitude over 3500 metres), but it should all be worthwhile since the teams will be rewarded with a day off on Monday.
 Press service.
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