Transsyberia Rally 2008, Leg 1 Moscow – Vladimir: Porsche takes lead after
tough opening stage

Stuttgart . The Team Porsche Portugal is in the lead of the 2008
Transsyberia Rally powered by Sony Ericsson after the first of 14 legs.
With a faultless drive on rain-sodden and extremely muddy forest tracks as
well as through many water crossings, Pedro Gameiro and Pedro Figueiredo
relegated their Team Germany 3 opponents Lars Kern and Daniel van Kan to
second position in their 385 hp Porsche Cayenne S Transsyberia. Third is
occupied by Christian Lavieille and Francois Borsotto (Team France), who
also compete with a Cayenne S Transsyberia. A total of eight Porsche
Cayenne teams rank amongst the top ten.

Already on day one, the Transsyberia has shown competitors why it is
regarded as the toughest marathon rally for near-standard offroad vehicles.
The 48 kilometre stage near the Russian city of Vladimir ran through boggy
forest paths with deep ruts and large bumps. Due to extremely heavy
rainfall in the last days the ground had become totally sodden. Puddles
turned into deep water holes, placing huge demands on man and machine.
“That was a fantastic special stage,” said the enthusiastic winner of leg 1
Pedro Gameiro at the finish. “The reason we were able to take the lead on
the first leg is largely due to the navigation skills of my co-driver
Pedro. And, of course, our car. The Cayenne simply got through regardless.”

Second-placed Lars Kern was also satisfied: “Everything ran well right from
the start. The most important thing on the first legs is to get your
vehicle to the finish without any major damage. And that’s just what we did
today. I’m looking forward to the next stages. The conditions were very
difficult due to the huge volume of water, but at the wheel of a Cayenne S
Transsyberia such passages are great fun.”

Frenchman Christian Lavieille was also pleased with third place: “This leg
was very demanding but despite a couple of problems with our navigation we
had fun. We lost our way once but we found out later that just about
everyone did.”

Further comments from the Porsche pilots:

Said Rashid Al Hajri (4th place): “This special stage threw everything at
us. Those who brought home a good result today can truly regard this as a
big success. It was not easy. The critical thing was navigation. For this
reason I have to compliment my co-driver. He navigated us safely to the
finish. At one point we got stuck in a water hole and lost six minutes. But
it doesn’t matter. It’s a long way to Ulaanbaatar.”

Antonio Tognana (5th place): “We took a couple of wrong turns and had to go
back. Naturally this cost us a lot of time. But the rally is long. To lose
a couple of minutes along the way is not critical. It’s how things pan out
at the end that’s important.”

Christian Pfeil-Schneider (6th place): “Actually, everything ran very well
for us. The route was extremely slushy and soft. There were huge water
holes everywhere. The conditions were certainly not the easiest but we are
happy. Perhaps we could have been a bit quicker. But we saw that Armin
Schwarz was stuck in a water hole and we gave him a hand. That’s just what
you do.”

Armin Schwarz (7th place): “Well, things could have gone a bit better
today. We made really good time at the start and were far in the front
until about half way through the stage. Then we got lost and later became
stuck in a water hole. A huge thank you to Christian Pfeil-Schneider and
Tommy Steuer who pulled us out. The Porsche Cayenne S Transsyberia on the
other hand ran perfectly. The car ran beautifully, even under these extreme
conditions. Now we just have to wait and see how things continue.
Everything is still wide open.”

The second of 14 legs takes off on 12th July from Vladimir to Kazan and
runs over 711 kilometres, of which 58 kilometres are a special stage. The
rally started on 11th July on Moscow’s Red Square and finishes on 25th July
after a total of 7,000 kilometres in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.

Classification Transsyberia Rally 2008, 1st of 14 legs, Moscow – Vladimir

1. Gameiro/Figueiredo   Team Portugal     Porsche     1:04.01 hour
2. Kern/van Kan         Team Germany 3    Porsche     0:13.42 hrs behind
3. Lavieille/Borsotta         Team France       Porsche     0:15.33
4. Al Hajri/Trenker           Team Middle East  Porsche     0:17.57
5. Tognana/Cassina            Team Italy        Porsche     0:23.52
6. Pfeil-Schneider/Steuer     Colombian Arrow   Porsche     0:48.16
7. Schwarz/Schulz       Team Germany 1    Porsche     0:57.36
8. Baier/Steinbring           Teambuctou        Toyota            1:14.49
9. Levyatov/Talantsev   Team Russia 1     Porsche     1:31.08
10. Pasetti/Gröger            Lybia-Rally-Raid  Toyota            1:35.24