Dakar 2022: Another good stage for Pietro Cinotto

CST Polaris Xtremeplus Team  gains another position in the overall and is now in P19

On the Dakar you can never say mission accomplished till it’s finished and today Rally Director David Castera challenged all the competitors with a true Dakar stage: 345 kms of dunes of all size, fast tracks, rocks, technical navigation, and camel grass.

It was a tough day, but all the four Xtremeplus team are at the bivouac in Bisha, ready for the last effort: 163 kms of sprint race and 515 kms of liaison to arrive on the podium in Jeddah.

Cinotto – Bertoldi CST Polaris Xtremeplus Team was the best placed crew today. The young duo finished 19th in the stage and they are now 19th of the overall. “Finally a Dakar stage and we are happy with our performance. We enjoyed the stage despite a technical issue in the dunes. The target now is Jeddah and tomorrow we will start in << attack mode>> for 163 kms”, said Pietro Cinotto.

It was a good day for Umeda, who enjoyed the big dunes of the first section. “It was hard but good fun. The navigation was tricky, and I think I missed a waypoint”, said the Japanese racer, provisionally P32 in the stage and the overall.
There is a great satisfaction also in the Polaris crew number 445. “Our target is crossing the finish line in Jeddah and we are getting really close. We are very excited, and it is great to share this experience with my son Jerome”, said Jean Claude Pla, 37th today and 28th in the overall.

“It was not the day we expected”, said Michele Cinotto - CST Polaris Xtremeplus Team, “We started in front of Pietro, and the team strategy was to wait for him and support him during the race as he is in a better position of the overall. Unfortunately, we had a mechancal issue at km 50 and we had to wait for the assistance in the race. As usually they did a good job but we had lost 3 h and half and we decided to take the road because we didn’t want to tackle the dunes in the night and the car had still some small issues. It’s a pity for the classification, but races are like this and tomorrow we will rejoin the race”, said Michele Cinotto, provisionally 41st today and 40th of the overall.

Source CST Polaris Xtremeplus Team