6 MINI ALL4 Racing vehicles to go for in Qatar
– Home race for Nasser Al-Attiyah
– Vasilyev to travel to Qatar as World Cup leader
Just two weeks after the one-two-three in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the MINI ALL4 Racing is about to contest its next rally: the Sealine Cross Country Rally, held from 18th to 24th April 2015 in Qatar, represents the third FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup round and six MINI ALL4 Racing vehicles will be there to try to continue the streak of success.
Together with his French co-driver Mathieu Baumel, Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) will try as hard as he can to win his home race. Russian pairing Vladimir Vasilyev / Konstantin Zhiltsov finished second and first, in the first two World Cup rounds and consequently, they are the World Cup leaders with 81 points on their tally, followed by the Dutch crew Erik van Loon and Wouter Rosegaar (52 points) who hold second position. Young Briton Harry Hunt surprised in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge by finishing third, with his experienced German navigator Andreas Schulz. He was amazingly fast in his first off-road race and made no mistakes. With the 32 points he scored with this result he leaped up to third position in the World Cup standings. Also Adam Malysz and his navigator Rafal Marton were able to add some world cup points to their tally in their MINI ALL4 Racing debut; in Qatar they will aim for more. The fifth MINI ALL4 Racing is the one of Nani Roma who is going to race with Alex Haro for the first time.
The race will be started on Monday, 20th April, with a 194-kilometre special stage. On each of the following days, the competitors will cover some 400 kilometres. The total mileage to be covered over the course of the rally adds up to 1 917.02 kilometres, with a special-stage distance of 1 758.62 kilometres.
Sven Quandt, X-raid GmbH CEO: “The season kick-off was very stressful but successful for us, with the MINI ALL4 Racing delivering in particularly convincing style in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. And now, our customers and we want to tie in with these successes, in Qatar. There, we once again will have to cope with different terrain. Ice and snow in Russia were followed by sand and dunes in Abu Dhabi and now in Qatar, the event will mainly feature rocks and hard tracks.”
