Having safely made it through the first two days of the 2007 Dakar Rally, which took the teams across Portugal and Spain, the two Fiat Pandas head off into the Moroccan desert this morning as their African desert adventure begins in earnest. Today's third stage, and the first to take place in Africa after the teams all made the overnight ferry crossing to Morocco last night will take the surviving cars, bikes and trucks from Nador to Er Rachidia. After a connection distance of 205 km, the teams will tackle the 252 km of timed competitive miles that make up the third stage; followed by a final 191 km connection before the overnight halt in Er Rachidia hives into view. A long, tough day will see the teams covering 648 km in total, and it will be a stern opening African test for Miki Biasion and Bruno Saby, at the wheel of the two Fiat PanDAKAR machines.

For the first time since the teams began rolling down the starting ramp in Lisbon on Saturday morning, navigation will play a vital part, just as the Dakar Rally winds up a massive gear. On the first stretch of today's special stage, there are very many navigational changes to face: this is a real maze of tracks. But even once out of this tricky labyrinth, no lapses of attention will be tolerated. And though the rocky trails will seem ideal to the drivers for building up their speed, the many wades will keep the crews firmly on their toes.

However, it is so far so good for the two Fiat Pandas after they safely came through the first two special stages in Portugal. The opening leg on Saturday saw the 510 teams travelling from the Portuguese capital Lisbon, to Portimão, 464 km in total with, 117 km of timed stage route making up SS1. Wading through a sea of mud, the Pandas came through the treacherous conditions intact, Biasion finishing 148th overall in the car category with a time of 4:01.00 (2:40.22 behind the stage winning VW of Carlos Souza), while Saby was 158th overall with a time of 4:31.01 (03:10.23 behind the leader).
 

With no respite from the elements, the second leg (yesterday) took the remain 490 teams into the Portuguese mountains, with a 67 km timed stage distance out of the day's total of 545 km, which saw the teams finishing the day in Málaga, Spain. And despite their little 1300cc Multijet engines and tiny frames, the two PanDAKARs were in fighting form: Biasion came through the stage in 1 hour 14 minutes and 44 seconds, 15:18 behind the stage winning VW driven by former FIA World Rally Champion, Carlos Sainz, who was delighted to claim the victory as he rolled onto home soil. Saby meanwhile was just two places further behind his Fiat factory team mate, completing SS2 in 1:16.07, (16.48 behind Sainz).

The result vaulted them both up the rally leaderboard, Biasion up thirteen places and into 135th place, with a time of 9:14.44, after the 5 hour time penalty is included, and 6:52.47 behind the leader, Souza, who held onto the top spot despite Sainz squeezing the day's stage win. Saby moved up nineteen places to 139th overall with a time of 9:16.07 (with a 5 hour time penalty also included); 6:54.10 behind the rally leader.

One hundred and seventy seven cars made it to the finish of the second leg, with the two Fiat Pandas boarding the ferry sitting very comfortably placed on the general classification, ahead of many larger, highly proven desert racing cars such from Mitsubishi, Citroën, VW, Nissan and Toyota, as well as a string of the specially-built Buggy and Desert Warrior machines.