(Round 1 / 4) RALLY VODAFONE TRANSIBERICO (MAY 29-JUNE 3) Final report

A THRILLING FINALE AS MITSUBISHI TAKES 2ND and 4TH IN PORTUGAL

Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart's Joan 'Nani' Roma/Lucas Cruz (Spain), and Luc Alphand/Gilles Picard (France),  secured a double podium for the Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution on Portugal's Rally Transiberico on Sunday.

The menu of the 2007 FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup's opening round featured seven twisty, narrow stages that were far more akin to WRC competition than the sort of baja or desert terrain more readily associated with the world of cross-country rallying. Yet although the event was ultimately won by ex-WRC champ Carlos Sainz, Roma pushed hard from the outset to keep his fellow Spaniard under pressure. However, when the former biker had to stop and change a puncture just 7km into Saturday morning's 220km test, it handed his rival a chance to pull out a sufficiently comfortable cushion at the top to then be able to control from in front for the remainder of the weekend. Then, on the final day.

As in 2006, Roma was joined on the podium by his Mitsubishi team-mate Luc Alphand at the end of the 2,220.98km event which featured 1,131.59km of against-the-clock action en route from the rally's base in Estoril, west of Lisbon, to overnight halts in Badajoz, Spain, and Evora, Portugal, before returning to the Atlantic casino resort of Estoril for the finish ceremony.

Alphand's run suffered an initial setback on Day 2 when he damaged his steering after clipping a rock. He then lost a further ten or so minutes on Saturday morning when the organisers had trouble pulling him clear of a muddy water-splash, an incident that essentially prevented the French crew from finishing the penultimate leg any higher than fourth overall behind Sainz, Roma and Carlos Sousa. The final day saw the Frenchman make a thrilling bid to clinch a top-three finish on the final day but fell short by a margin of less than two minutes after pulling back nearly six minutes of his deficit compared with Sousa on Saturday morning.

"It's been a good rally, but we picked up three punctures in all over the weekend and we really needed a totally trouble-free run if we were to stand any chance of winning," observed Roma. "For the second year running, I will have to settle for 2nd place on the Transiberico, although there is no shame in finishing runner-up to someone of Carlos Sainz's experience and calibre, especially on stages like this. Lucas and I gave it our very best shot, but in the end there was little we could do to put any significant pressure on the leader after the time we dropped early on."

Meanwhile, still buzzing from his late challenge to pass Sousa which saw him post the fastest time in the final stage of the weekend, Luc looked back at the way his weekend unfolded with mixed feelings. "It's been great fighting at this level of competition and I'm delighted to have set at least one fastest time," he enthused. "We finished less than two minutes off the podium despite the time we lost on Saturday morning waiting for the organisers to pull us out of a water-crossing. That was so frustrating. Then, on the morning of the final day, we were asked to tuck in behind Roma on the stage after he suffered two punctures. He didn't have any spares left and so it was only logical for me to stay with him to protect his second place rather than risk throwing everything away by trying to pass Sousa. I think we've all learnt a great deal this weekend and I can't wait to put those lessons to good effect when my programme resumes in Argentina at the end of the summer."

"On this sort of terrain, which resembled a round of the WRC more than typical cross-country rally terrain, I have to say how pleased I am with the runs of both Nani and Luc who succeeded in taking the fight to someone with as much experience of this sort of terrain as Carlos Sainz," recognised team director Dominique Serieys. "Before losing ground following his puncture on Saturday morning, Nani was snapping at his compatriot's heels and was only beaten on the first five stages by two former World Rally Champions as Sainz and McRae; not bad for someone who only recently switched from two to four wheels! We have to be lucid however. Both our cars ran extremely reliably, but beating Sainz on stages like this was never going to be easy. It's now up to us to keep working to try and turn the tables on our rivals the next time we meet..."

The next outing for the Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart team is Spain's Baja Espana (July 20-22), the second round of the FIA international Cup for Cross-Country Bajas for which the 2007 Dakar winner Stéphane Peterhansel (France) will join forces with Nani Roma.

The team's FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup programme then resumes with the Por las Pampas Rally in Argentina (Round 3, August 27-September 5) and the series' final fixture, the UAE Desert Challenge (Round 4, October 27-November 2). Alphand will be partnered by Japan's Hiroshi Masuoka in South America and then by Nani Roma and Stéphane Peterhansel in the United Arab Emirates.

SS6 CLASSIFICATION

POS DRIVER / CO-DRIVER VEHICLE TIME DIFF1 Colin McRae / Jean-Marc Fortin Nissan Navara 01:41:42.0 2 Luc Alphand / Gilles Picard Mitsubishi Evo 01:42:15.0 00:00:33.03 Carlos Sousa / Andreas Schulz Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 01:42:21.0 00:00:39.04 Carlos Sainz / Michel Perin Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 01:43:01.0 00:01:19.05 Filipe Campos / Jaime Baptista Proto Dessoude 01:44:31.0 00:02:49.06 Miguel Barbosa / Luis Ramalho Proto Dessoude 01:45:11.0 00:03:29.07 Boris Gadasin / Alexandre Mironenko Proto Dessoude 01:45:28.0 00:03:46.08 Joan Roma / Lucas Cruz Mitsubishi Evo 01:45:36.0 00:03:54.09 Rui Sousa / Carlos Silva Proto D-Max 01:46:38.0 00:04:56.010 João Ramos / Vitor Jesus Toyota Rav 4 01:46:47.0 00:05:05.0

SS7 CLASSIFICATION

POS DRIVER / CO-DRIVER VEHICLE TIME DIFF1 Luc Alphand / Gilles Picard Mitsubishi Evo 01:36:52.0 2 Colin McRae / Jean-Marc Fortin Nissan Navara 01:37:17.0 00:00:25.03 Joan Roma /Lucas Cruz Mitsubishi Evo 01:37:49.0 00:00:57.04 Carlos Sainz / Michel Perin Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 01:37:59.0 00:01:07.05 Carlos Sousa / Andreas Schulz Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 01:38:50.0 00:01:58.06 Miguel Barbosa / Luis Ramalho Proto Dessoude 01:42:11.0 00:05:19.07 Filipe Campos / Jaime Baptista Proto Dessoude 01:43:46.0 00:06:54.08 Boris Gadasin / Alexandre Mironenko Proto Dessoude 01:44:03.0 00:07:11.09 Nelson Clemente / António Albano Nissan Pick-up 01:50:11.0 00:13:19.0

PROVISIONAL OVERALL CLASSIFICATION

POS DRIVER / CO-DRIVER VEHICLE TIME DIFF1 Carlos Sainz / Michel Perin Volkswagen Race Touareg 2  13:33:41.0  2 Joan Roma / Lucas Cruz Mitsubishi Evo 13:41:24.0 00:07:43.03 Carlos Sousa/Andreas Schulz Volkswagen Race Touareg 2  13:49:21.0 00:15:40.04 Luc Alphand / Gilles Picard Mitsubishi Evo 13:51:10.0 00:17:29.05 Filipe Campos / Jaime Baptista Proto Dessoude  14:27:57.0 00:54:16.06 Helder Oliveira / José Marques Toyota Land Cruiser 15:13:52.0 01:40:11.07 Nuno Inocêncio / Sérgio Cosme Mitsubishi Pajero 15:28:01.0 01:54:20.08 Maurizio Traglio / Erika Pajer Nissan Pathfinder 15:36:41.0 02:03:00.09 Balázs Szalay / László Bunkoczi Opel Antara 15:40:14.0 02:06:33.010 Francesc Termens / Jordi Vilalta Mitsubishi Montero EVO CUP 15:54:11.0 02:20:30.011 Lino Carapeta / Ricardo Cortiçadas Bowler Wildcat 16:08:56.0 02:35:15.012 Américo Santos / João Pedro Salgueiro Nissan Pick-up 16:18:15.0 02:44:34.013 Paulo Martins / António Morais Nissan Navara Challenge 16:29:14.0 02:55:33.014 Ricardo Leal dos Santos  Mitsubishi Pajero 16:35:37.0 03:01:56.015 Andreu González / Janina González Mitsubishi Montero EVO CUP 16:38:28.0 03:04:47.0