Defending champion Jean-Pierre Fontenay and his Mitsubishi team are favourites for the twenty-first Paris-Dakar rally which starts in Granada on Thursday. There will be 850 competitors from 32 countries battling over 16 stages through Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Senegal.
For the past decade, wealthy official teams like Citroen and Mitsubishi have dominated the 9052-km event, and Mitsubishi, the only team with full support from their mother company, are strongly fancied again this time.
Mitsubishi have been reinforced by a promising pair of Germans, Jutta Kleinschmidt and Tina Thorner. Kleinschmidt was the first woman to set a fastest stage time in the last rally.
Frenchman Jean-Louis Schlesser, beaten in each of his 11 attempts by the leading teams, looks more threatening than ever, thanks to the support of Renault. He has improved his assistance team and will join experienced Spaniard Jose Maria Servia, who will drive the second Schlesser-Renault Buggy.
Fast-improving Nissan will be the other team to watch, even though they are aiming for victory in the longer term. Spain's Salvador Servia, France's Thierry Delavergne and former six-time motorcyle race winner Stephane Peterhansel could all mount a serious challenge.
In the motorcycle section, the race looks open, with Italian Edi Orioli, riding a KTM, the only former winner in the competition.
q Alan Jenkins, the man who has shouldered much of the responsibility for the poor performance of Jackie Stewart's Ford-powered Formula One team, has left the Milton Keynes outfit after an acrimonious meeting with the three-times world champion.
Technical director Jenkins, who led the design team which created the first two cars for Stewart Grand Prix, walked out by mutual agreement, according to the 58-year-old Scot. However, Jenkins' position was always understood to be untenable following the recent defection by Gary Anderson from Jordan to the Stewart team.
Anderson takes over immediately as technical director, but Stewart, whose team has faced intense pressure from Ford,will be forced to start the 1999 season with a car designed by Jenkins.
''Alan has been responsible for designing the SF3 car, which gives every indication of addressing many of the problems we faced in 1998,'' said Stewart.
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