Summary (2001 - Paris - Dakar)
2001 Paris - Dakar. In the run-up to this year's Dakar, the experts had already
named Mitsubishi as the favourite for victory, with one of the Japanese
drivers in mind. However, a German woman was to steal the show from everyone else. Jutta
Kleinschmidt became the very first woman ever to finish the Paris-Dakar rally
as the winner. The first three stages in Europe were intended only as a warm-up for
the hard African routes, and so all the drivers took it easy; already
on leaving the European continent, Masuoka's Pajero was in the lead.
Shinozuka made a blunder, getting stuck in soft sand for seven minutes
because he had demanded too much of his Pajero and had run out of
road. Once in Africa, the competition really began, for now it was time
to cross Morocco's wide plains, which by their nature offered a
perfect terrain for the arrow-fast, rear-wheel-drive buggies. Now the
premise was to keep visual contact with Schlesser and co. and to wait for the soft, sandy
regions of Mauritania in which the Pajeros with their four-wheel drive were superior.
The predictions came true and Schlesser took the lead, closely
followed however by Fontenay, who in turn had Schlesser's teammate Servia breathing
down his neck. At the night halt in Er Rachidia it was clear to everyone that this would
be a hard-fought race. Morocco went according to Schlesser's plans, and so in Goulimine
he had a 12-minute lead over Servia, by now second. Fontenay, who was plagued
by punctures, dropped back to third place. Behind the leaders, Shinozuka caused
a stir, fighting his way back up place by place after allowing himself
a mistake in Spain and falling almost to the back of the field.
Jutta Kleinschmidt struggled with suspension problems but did her job just as well
as Prieto. Only teammate Sousa had bad luck, for he got stuck in the thick dust cloud
of a Kamaz truck and had no opportunity to overtake. At the end of the
Moroccan section the picture had changed and Servia led ahead of Fontenay and Masuoka,
after Schlesser had been given a penalty by the stewards
- he had accepted outside assistance in a control section. Between
Smara and El Ghallaouyia nothing changed at the front despite the first dunes,
but the open desert from El Ghallaouyia brought the turning point. Now the drivers could choose
their own routes and were no longer bound to tracks. Jutta Kleinschmidt
had meanwhile found her personal suspension setup and won
the 518 km from El Ghallaouyia, which put her in fourth place overall. Fontenay
allowed himself a slip, though he kept his second place, when
he shot over a dune and his car hit a mound of camel grass hard
and tipped onto its side. Already the problems with the Pajero were so great that
he skipped the last two checkpoints and spent the day doing repairs in the camp,
for which he collected a 25-hour time penalty and thus no longer had any chance of
victory. There followed what was probably the toughest stage of the rally between El Ghallaouyia and
Atar. Over the 435 kilometres, Masuoka delivered a unique performance and catapulted
himself into first place, even though he had a flat tyre 100 km before the finish.
Fontenay had less luck; he had damaged his suspension in the previous day's accident,
and now his wheel nut departed together with the wheel it was
holding on. His car rolled over and came to a stop. Fontenay did reach
the finish after repair work, but his rally was over. After the
rest day in Atar, Schlesser started directly behind leader Masuoka. But the
day was not to end as well for Schlesser as for the Mitsubishis, for Schlesser
as well as Masuoka got lost in the dunes. Masuoka was able to drive over the dunes
and correct his navigation error. Schlesser, because of his rear-wheel drive, had to
drive around the dunes and lost even more time. The twelfth stage brought sandstorms
and soft sand with it, so that many drivers, among others Masuoka, got stuck;
only Jean Louis Schlesser profited from the situation and made up a lot of
time. After the halt in Tichit, a duel crystallised between Schlesser
and Masuoka, who left the rest of the field further and further behind.
When the rally came out of the sea of dunes and headed onto the narrow tracks of Mali,
Masuoka's only task was to get through, for Schlesser could not overtake on
the narrow tracks and so could not make up any time. But Masuoka
forced the pace and so his wheel suspension broke, which cost him 25 minutes.
Although he kept the lead, he had to start the seventeenth stage in twentieth
position, and so Schlesser, who had a clear run, was able to make up time. But Masuoka
and his co-driver Pascal Maimon did not give up and, against all expectations, made up
ground, and in Bakel they still stood at the head of the field, albeit with
a wafer-thin lead. Over the following 217 km through the Senegalese steppe
there was no way for Schlesser to make up time — until something strange happened. The
bystanders and the officials were astonished when two buggies drove past
Masuoka, who was waiting for the start, and roared off into the steppe. Masuoka stormed
after them in a rage, but could not overtake Servia while Schlesser shot away
at the front, and in the bitter fight he allowed himself a slip into the
bush whose repair took an hour. Schlesser was first, directly
followed by Kleinschmidt. It looked as if Schlesser would win the Dakar, for
only one stage and 25 kilometres remained to be driven. But the organisers
handed Servia and Schlesser a one-hour time penalty each for their
breach of the rules. The last 25 kilometres around the Pink Lake would have left Masuoka
the chance of victory, but without team orders and with a 2.5-minute lead,
Jutta Kleinschmidt rolled across the finish line first of all in her Pajero and was
thus the first woman ever to win the Paris Dakar rally.
Final standings
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Manufacturer | Overall time |
| 1 | 205 | Kleinschmidt | Mitsubishi Pajero | 70.42.06 |
| 2 | 224 | Masuoka | Mitsubishi Pajero | + 00.02.39 |
| 3 | 200 | Schlesser | Schlesser Buggy | + 00.23.29 |
| 4 | 202 | Servia | Schlesser Buggy | + 02.06.24 |
| 5 | 208 | Sousa | Mitsubishi L200 | + 02.08.30 |
| 6 | 201 | Fontenay | Mitsubishi Pajero | + 03.52.05 |
| 7 | 238 | Henrard | Volkswagen Buggy | + 05.05.19 |
| 8 | 209 | De Mevius | Nissan Terrano | + 06.29.59 |
| 9 | 204 | Delavergne | Nissan Terrano | + 07.31.37 |
| 10 | 231 | Bourgnon | Nissan Terrano | + 13.58.08 |