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On a track that has never seen a competition, varied and scenic, the first stage of the Libyan part of the "Rallye de Tunisie"2008, has been decisive in many ways. Demanding in navigation as well as for the tires, this stage enabled the polish competitor Krzysztof Holowczyc (Nissan Pickup) to get into first position in the general placing with a whole ten minutes ahead of Christian Lavieille's (Proto Dessoude).

Once again and for the third time Michel Marchini, won the stage leading comfortably in front of the other two 450 Yamahas : Olivier Pain and the Portuguese Pedro Bianchi Prata.

Nobre 5-Nil !
Today's record number of punctures goes to the Brazilian Paolo Nobre, who incredibly burst five tires on this special, limping past the finish line yet his main concern was to follow, via satellite telephone, tonight's football match between Palmeras (of which he is vice- chairman ) and Sao Paulo, in Ponte Preta.

Novitskiy, nonstop
Leaving in 40th position this morning, the Russian, Leonid Novitskiy (Mitsubishi) set out to catch up, and catch he did. Overtaking at least twenty other competitors and as many bikes, suffering two burst tires, he reached the finish line in 5th position.

Housieaux and Monterde get to work
Deception for the Schlesser team, as they too, suffer two burst tires. They were ahead at the first checkpoint (km 157) but soon found themselves pulling out the jacks. Jose Luis Monterde and Dominique Houssieux had left first but were definitely not in the head group.

Bounds in the top 15 ! Enduro Category
On his BMW XChallenge the Welshman Graig Bounds, all the way from Herthyr Tydfil had a fall on Km 225. More dust than damage, he kept his wits and even if it's his first major Rally, he seems to be doing very well.

Watches out T2 are coming
In the T2 series, reserved for standard cars, the Nissans gave way to Toyota today and the Portuguese Helder Oliviera. But in the overall ranking Laurent Rosso in his Nissan Pathfinder is just ahead of his team mate Jean Pierre Strugo.

Press Release NPO