Dakar Rally 2019 – Second place for Nani Roma

Media Information

Dakar Rally 2019

17 January 2019

 

Dakar Rally 2019

Second place for Nani Roma

 

  • Six MINI crews complete Dakar 2019 – five inside the top ten.
  • MINI John Cooper Works Rally crew of Joan ‘Nani’ Roma and
    co-driver Tom Colsoul secure second place overall.
  • Carlos Sainz in a MINI John Cooper Works Buggy wins the
    closing stage of Dakar.

 

 

Munich. Dakar 2019 has finished after the tenth and final
stage that saw yet another strong performance from the MINI crews.
Stage 10 was 359 km in total, of which 112 km were off-road Special
Stage and ended with the Dakar competitors’ arrival in Lima, capital
city of Peru.

 

Joan ‘Nani’ Roma (ESP) and co-driver Alex Haro (ESP) raced Stage 10
according to plan, which was to place their MINI John Cooper Works
Rally in a position that would safeguard their overall ranking of
second. Finishing 6th in today’s stage ensured that Roma
and Haro were successful and the Spanish duo did indeed secure a
well-deserved second-place overall at Dakar 2019.

 

Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL) and co-driver Tom Colsoul (BEL) kept up
their consistent pace to finish today’s stage in fifth. After ten days
and approximately 5,000 km of racing, 3,000 km of which were off-road
Special Stage sections, Przygonski and Colsoul secured fourth place
overall in a MINI John Cooper Works Rally.

 

The third MINI crew to finish Dakar 2019 inside the top five and at
position five was Cyril Despres (FRA) and co-driver Jean Paul Cottret
(FRA) in a MINI John Cooper Works Buggy. Today’s result of third in
stage showed what could have been if the French pairing had more
fortune than misfortune amongst the Peruvian dunes and its infamous fesh-fesh.

 

Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA) / Timo Gottschalk (GER) raced at a measured
pace today to finish Stage 10 in 15th. This result assured
them of a top ten Dakar finish of seventh place. One position further
back in eighth place overall – and the fifth MINI car to complete
Dakar 2019 inside the top ten – was the MINI John Cooper Works Rally
of  Boris Garafulic (CHI) and co-driver Filipe Palmeiro (POR).

 

Another reason for the competing MINI crews and MINI Motorsport
partner X-Raid to celebrate was that Stage 10 was eventually won by
the MINI John Cooper Works Buggy crew of Carlos Sainz (ESP) and Lucas
Cruz (ESP). This was a welcome result after the Spanish pair had more
than their fair share of bad luck throughout the previous nine stages,
which saw them finish this year’s Dakar 13th overall.

 

Sven Quandt – CEO X-raid

“That was a tough Dakar and the driver who made no mistakes emerged
as the winner. Congratulations to Nasser. The same goes for the
runner-up, Nani Roma. He did a great job. Going into the Dakar, he was
not necessarily one of the favourites, but second place is superb. For
me, Kuba also performed brilliantly in the MINI John Cooper Works
Rally. Many had written him off, but he proved them wrong with fourth
place, adding to his success story. The Dakar was as tough as we
expected – a lot of sand and dunes. We certainly had a few technical
issues, which did not help us. However, I think the fact that we had
five MINI in the top ten shows how reliable they are. It is a pity
that Stéphane was forced to retire yesterday. Fortunately, David is well.”

 

Nani Roma

“Second place is not too bad! We had a nice strategy all the way
through the race although you are always more intelligent now after
the race with perspective. We did well and we are happy. We would like
to thank the team – not just my mechanics and engineers but the whole
X-raid support team.”

 

Jakub Przygonski

“We are so happy that we are at the Dakar finish line; it was a
really tough ten days. I think the last three days was the toughest
sand dunes I have ever raced on, but we managed and we had almost all
the stages perfect. Our race tempo was perfect and we are happy that
we could keep pace with the factory cars and drivers with our normal
car. We are a young team and we can be opponents to the top guys and
the Dakar legends, which is really good.”

 

Cyril Despres

“We had the first day without any mistake or problem and with a nice
surface; we were cruising. Then came nine days suffering. We knew it
would be a hard Dakar but it was even harder than we expected. It’s
not only about driving and having experience, you also need some luck.
It’s a different race than I used to do. I still race for passion and
this Dakar I did not really enjoy many days or hours. It was a good
year one.”

 

Yazeed Al-Rajhi

“We are happy we finished seventh overall. We had a lot of problems
but we survived and everything is okay. Next year we hope to get a
better result. This year’s Dakar was one of the more difficult ones
but it was okay for me and I think we managed well.”

 

Boris Garafulic

Dakar was good and we’re very happy to finish. It was very hard; more
demanding than all of the other ones, but we’re happy to be back and
now it’s time to rest!”

 

Carlos Sainz

“It’s been a difficult rally for us, especially after day three. It
has been a matter of just continuing. We’ve had some small issues,
which have cost a lot of time and they are things that we have learned
and need to improve for the future. I want to thank the team for
fixing problems every day and I hope we can learn a lot.”

 

For more information about Dakar, please visit the host’s event home
page here.

 

Dakar Rally 2019
: MINI final standings

 

Pos

Driver

Co-driver

#

MINI

Team

2nd

 

 

Joan
Roma
(ESP)

Alex
Haro
(ESP)

307

MINI
John Cooper Works Rally

X-raid MINI John Cooper Works Rally Team

4th

 

Jakub
Przygonski
(POL)

Tom Colsoul
(BEL)

303

MINI John Cooper Works Rally

Orlen X-raid Team

5th

 

Cyril
Despres
(FRA)

Jean Paul Cottret
(FRA)

308

MINI John Cooper Works Buggy

X-raid MINI John Cooper Works Team

7th

 

 

Yazeed
Al-Rajhi
(KSA)

Timo Gottschalk
(GER)

314

MINI John Cooper Works Rally

X-raid MINI John Cooper Works
Rally Team

8th

 

Boris
Garafulic
(CHI)

Filipe Palmeiro
(POR)

321

MINI John Cooper Works Rally

X-raid MINI John Cooper Works
Rally Team

13th

 

Carlos
Sainz
(ESP)

Lucas
Cruz
(ESP)

300

MINI
John Cooper Works Buggy

X-raid MINI John Cooper Works Team