Dakar: Stage 11 Atar to Kiffa quotes

Motorcycles Marc Coma (ESP -- KTM) - 006 I still can't believe it. It's horrible. There was only one Fabrizio. He was unique. His age! His navigation! For me, he was a reference and will always be. I'm young in this race being here only since ...

Motorcycles

Marc Coma (ESP -- KTM) - 006
I still can't believe it. It's horrible. There was only one Fabrizio. He was unique. His age! His navigation! For me, he was a reference and will always be. I'm young in this race being here only since three years. He was an example for us. Fabrizio was a 'gentleman'. And now he's gone. We all have to discuss, the bikers, the teams and the organisation to take the good decision. It's very difficult for the moment to find a good solution.

Isidre Esteve (SPA -- KTM) - 007
It's a very though situation for all of us. We need to take one more day to make up our minds and know exactly what to do. What the best solution is! We'll ask the organisation to fly us directly to Bamako, to give us more time, then we'll see. I was just behind Fabrizio when he fell off, maybe ten metres behind him. The track wasn't dangerous at that place and we weren't riding very fast at that moment. It's very hard to explain what happened, because his fall wasn't spectacular at all.

David Frétigné (FRA -- YAM) - 012
I really don't understand what happened. According to me, he was maybe looking at his road instruments. We had just refuelled so the bikes were pretty heavy, he maybe lost balance on a small dune with the weight. The scene of the crash wasn't dangerous. We had just lost ourselves and we were looking for the right track. Cyril was on the good track and took off. Fabrizio followed in his dust and 300m later I saw Coma with his hand in the air so I stopped. I immediately knew it was serious. There was a lot of bleeding. I had trouble finding the distress signal and finally launched it. I then waited for the helicopter because I couldn't just leave. I think that we should carry on for him and for Richard (Sainct)... He would have wanted us to. It was his passion.

Cars

Stephane Peterhansel (FRA -- Mitsubishi) - 306
When I went passed his bike, I saw that it was him and I thoughts 'sh..., Fabrizio fell' but I thought he had just broken a wrist or a collarbone on a silly fall. When you get at the end of the special and you're given the news, it's really terrible. What's so horrible in this sport is chat you can fall at 150 km/h and get up without a scratch, but seeing the place where he fell, he probably wasn't even over 110-120 km/h. And now he's gone! It's really bad luck. But one has to remember that no matter what, we're looking for trouble. When you see that 150.000 people died for no reason! Of course that doesn't take away how we all feel and how much we will miss him and how sad we are for his family. It's really tough after Richard's (Sainct) death three months ago and Perez' yesterday. When I stopped on the bike to go to cars, that was also one of my concerns. I didn't want to ride that race too many.

Luc Alphand (FRA -- Mitsubishi) - 312
It's a real nightmare. We've had three deaths now with Richard (Sainct) and Perez. It reminds everyone that rally-raid is a dangerous discipline. We actually saw in the car race, vehicles rolling over and that could have been a lot more serious. My thoughts are with his family.

Nani Roma (SPA -- Mitsubishi) - 320
This is really a terrible moment. It should never happen. I'd known him for many years and more than a rival, he became a real friend. Now, I have a thought especially for his family, his wife and his two children. The remaining part of the race will be very difficult. I will find it very difficult to stay focused now. One thing is for sure, I will drive a lot slower until Dakar. It's a catastrophe.