Irish Motor Sports News – Mini All4 Racing in control at Dakar going into final day

Mini All4 Racing in control at Dakar going into final day

Jan 17, 2015

Nasser Al-Attiyah in his MINI ALL4 Racing leading overall classification with 1 stage to go
Four MINI ALL4 Racing within the top five in the overall classification now
MINI scores its eleventh stage win at the 2015 Dakar Rally.

MINI continues to show a dominant performance as the 2015 Dakar Rally is turning into the home stretch. Orlando Terranova/Bernardo Graue (AR/AR) celebrated another stage win on leg twelve, their fourth in total at this year’s event.

Vladimir Vasilyev/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RU/RU) finished in second place. They perfected the fifth MINI one-two victory at this year’s Dakar and moved up another place in the overall classification to P5. So far the MINI ALL4 Racing has won eleven out of twelve stages. Four MINI ALL4 Racing cars are currently within the top five in the overall classification.

Nasser Al-Attiyah (QT) and his co-driver Mathieu Baumel (FR) finished in fourth place today and have further extended their lead in the overall classification. They are now comfortably leading the field by 35:39 minutes.

On Friday the Dakar route lead from Termas de Rio Hondo (AR) to Rosario (AR). The drivers had to tackle a 298 kilometre-long, very fast stage held on twisty gravel roads lined with trees and bushes. The drivers had to be very careful not to wreck their cars on the penultimate stage of this year’s Dakar Rally.

Krzysztof Holowczyc/Xavier Panseri (PL/FR) were in eighth place on Friday and are still in third place overall. Erik van Loon/Wouter Rosegaar (NL/NL) are also continuing to show a strong pace. They are fourth overall ahead of Vasilyev/Zhiltsov with just one stage to go.

On Saturday the Dakar will head to Buenos Aires (AR), where the drivers will cross the finish line after more than 9,000 kilometres across South America. The final stage will be the shortest of the whole Dakar Rally. The drivers have to stay concentrated for another 174 kilometres before they have finally mastered the toughest challenge in motorsports.

Overall classification after leg 12 (Top 5).

01 Al-Attiyah/Baumel – MINI ALL4 Racing – 40:18:30h
02 De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz – 40:54:09h
03 Holowczyc/Panseri – MINI ALL4 Racing – 41:50:21h
04 Van Loon/Rosegaar – MINI ALL4 Racing – 43:20:04h
05 Vasilyev/Zhiltsov – MINI ALL4 Racing – 43:30:49h
Coming up.

Day 14 (17 January 2015).
Start/finish: Rosario/Buenos Aires (Leg 13)
Total distance: 393 km, Special stage: 174 km, Liaison: 219 km

MINI ALL4 Racing 2015 Dakar Rally Lineup.

Monster Energy Rally Raid Team.

#300 Nani Roma/Michel Périn (ES/FR)
#305 Orlando Terranova/Bernardo „Ronnie“ Graue (AR/AR)
#306 Krzysztof Holowczyc/Xavier Panseri (PL/FR)

X-raid Team.

#310 Vladimir Vasilyev/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RU/RU)
#314 Erik van Loon/Wouter Rosegaar (NL/NL)
#319 Boris Garafulic/Filipe Palmeiro (CL/PT)
#329 Aidyn Rakhimbayev/Anton Nikolaev (KZ/RU)
#332 Zhou Yong/Andreas Schulz (CN/DE)
#334 Stephan Schott/Holm Schmidt (DE/DE)

Qatar Rally Team.

#301 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel (QT/FR)

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