This year MMSP will be entering a total of five factory-built cars in the 2005 Telefónica-Dakar Rally.


The team is bidding for a fifth consecutive and 10th overall victory in the grueling African event, which starts in Barcelona, Spain, on 1st January 2004. With the backing of Spain’s largest oil company, Repsol YPF SA as its main sponsor, the MMSP team will comprise four Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolutions and one Mitsubishi L200 Pick-Up.

The five works MMSP prepared Mitsubishis will be piloted by a successful and experienced line-up of drivers. Spearheading the Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution assault will be Japanese twice former winner Hiroshi Masuoka, who will be co-driven by the German Andreas Schulz, and French defending champion Stéphane Peterhansel, who boasts six two-wheel victories in the event and who celebrated his first victory with Mitsubishi in 2004. His team mate will be Frenchman Jean-Paul Cottret. Masuoka won the recent UAE Desert Challenge and clinched victory in the Dakar in 2002 and 2003.
Frenchmen Luc Alphand, a former World Cup ski champion, together with co-driver Gilles Picard, and Spain’s Joan (“Nani”) Roma, the overall winner of the motorcycle category in 2004, will drive a third and fourth Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution. Roma is to be partnered by Andorra-based Henri Magne.

Germany’s Andrea Mayer finished fifth overall last year and will drive the sole Mitsubishi L200 Pick-Up. Mayer will be co-driven by a new team mate, the Frenchman Jean-Michel Polato.

MITSUBISHI MOTORS REPSOL ATS STUDIOS TEAM – 2005 DAKAR RALLY ENTRIES:

Stéphane Peterhansel (F)/Jean-Paul Cottret (F) Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution

Hiroshi Masuoka (J)/Andreas Schulz (D) Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution

Luc Alphand (F)/Gilles Picard (F) Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution

Joan Roma (E)/Henri Magne (F) Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution

Andrea Mayer (D)/Jean-Michel Polato (F) Mitsubishi L200 Pick-Up



Anyone else think they can take the win.
They seem to have good drivers and the pajero evolution seems like a strong car and well up to the job but with nissn , Volkswagen and others it wont be easy


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Cool. Go Mitsubishi.

MITSUBISHI MOTORS CLAIMS RECORD-BREAKING FIFTH CONSECUTIVE DAKAR VICTORY AND 10TH OVERALL WIN
Peterhansel takes Dakar honors for second time
Alphand second overall in debut Dakar outing with Mitsubishi
Dream one-two finish and three Pajero / Montero Evolutions in the top six

Mitsubishi Motors made history today by becoming the first team on record to win five consecutive Dakar Rallies and claim 10 overall victories in what is considered to be the toughest and most demanding cross country event in the world.
Like every other team contesting the Dakar, Mitsubishi also suffered disappointment on route to its 10th victory. Japanese driver Hiroshi Masuoka, twice winner of the Dakar, had been one of the pre-event favorites, but he and German co-driver Andreas Schulz were withdrawn from the race in Atâr after delays cost them valuable time. The team took what proved to be the right decision to concentrate resources on its surviving cars.

Germany’s Andrea Mayer and French co-driver Jean-Michel Polato - the team’s rapid support crew - were also forced out after a stone damaged the crankshaft sensor in their Mitsubishi L200 Pick-Up. Polato attempted to repair the damage, but team management reached the decision to withdraw the car from the race in Atar rather than overstretch support resources.

The 2005 Telefónica Dakar Rally began in Barcelona, Spain, on New Year’s Eve and included 15 competitive sections in five countries.

The Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero Evolution crews claimed victory in five of the stages, Peterhansel winning four with Alphand taking the fastest time through the Tidjikja to Atâr section (Leg 9).

Mitsubishi’s long experience of cross country competition came to the forefront once again. Five successive victories and 10 overall victories is testament to the strength, durability and endurance of the all-conquering Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero Evolution.