Media Information
Dakar Rally 2019
16 January 2019
Dakar Rally 2019
–
Stage 08, San Juan de Marcona – Pisco
-
MINI John Cooper Works Rally crew of Joan ‘Nani’ Roma / Alex
Haro move up to second in the overall ranking. - Four MINI crews complete Stage 8 inside the top ten.
- Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski / Tom Colsoul finish third in stage.
Munich. Stage 8 (15th January) was also known as
‘Super Ica’ for two reasons: 1) the route covered sections of the
Ica desert, and 2) the start was a ‘super send-off’ that saw the top
ten cars and motorcycles and top five trucks from Stage 7 start the
359 km Special Stage together.
The ‘super’ send-off procedure gave early starters clear undisturbed
terrain to speed ahead of the following pack. The downsides being that
there were no previous tracks to indicate difficult terrain ahead and
a long wait at the finish point to see if the following competitors
would be faster across the same route.
Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL) and co-driver Tom Colsoul (BEL) managed
to make the best of the Ica desert stage of all the |MINI crews to
maintain a mid-order position over the first half of the Special
Stage. Avoiding any serious problems and working in harmony with
Colsoul, Przygonski eventually placed the MINI John Cooper Works Rally
into third.
Joan ‘Nani’ Roma (ESP) and co-driver Alex Haro (ESP) also drove a
consistent race without major mishap to complete the stage in fifth.
This stage result lifts the MINI John Cooper Works Rally crew into
second position in the overall ranking just 46min 29sec behind the
leading car.
Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA) / Timo Gottschalk (GER) in a MINI John Cooper
Works Rally had a good race today. Even though the pair set off in the
second wave of cars to start Stage 8 and race across ground disturbed
by the first wave, they managed to complete in a time that saw them
secure sixth place.
French duo Stéphane Peterhansel and co-driver David Castera did not
have a good day when they got stuck in the Ica sand early in the
stage. Despite this setback the MINI John Cooper Works Buggy crew
pushed hard to finish eighth overall in stage.
Boris Garafulic (CHI) and co-driver Filipe Palmeiro (POR) also put in
a good race today to place their MINI John Cooper Works Rally just
outside of the top ten with a hard earned 12th place.
Cyril Despres (FRA) and co-driver Jean Paul Cottret (FRA) also had
problems with the Ica sand. At one point they were stuck with
Peterhansel in the same area of desert and was the main reason for
their finish position of 17th. Carlos Sainz (ESP) and
co-driver Lucas Cruz (ESP), also in a MINI John Cooper Works Buggy,
had a similar race and managed to complete in 22nd.
Jakub Przygonski
“We had to cross a lot of soft dunes, in which there were a lot of
rocks hidden. Despite this, we still pushed hard and I don’t think we
could have hoped for any more than the result we had today.”
Nani Roma
“It was a really tough day. We got stuck once, but only for a short
time so we were lucky. It was pretty chaotic in the dunes, with
competitors all over the place. We need to continue like that tomorrow
and not make mistakes. We won’t change a lot. We need to stay calm,
drive like today and we will see what happens tomorrow night!”
Yazeed Al-Rajhi
“It was a good day, nothing special. We drove safe, which was the
most important thing, and we tried to keep going, enjoy the drive and
guard our position.”
Stéphane Peterhansel
“The first 150 km were very fast and we overtook a trio of bikes.
This made me the first vehicle into the dunes, so there were no tracks
to use as orientation. We then got stuck after 20 km. The sand was
very soft and difficult to read. And then, 50 km from the finish, we
hit a big hole in the dunes and again got stuck.”
Next race is Stage 9 (Pisco – Pisco) and is the penultimate stage of
Dakar 2019. For more information about Dakar, please visit the host’s
event home page here.
Dakar Rally 2019
: MINI standings after Stage 8
Pos
Driver
Co-driver
#
MINI
Team
Time
3rd
Joan
Roma
(ESP)
Alex Haro
(ESP)
307
MINI John Cooper Works
Rally
X-raid MINI John Cooper Works Rally
Team
030:02:19
+00:46:29
4th
Stéphane Peterhansel
(FRA)
David
Castera
(FRA)
304
MINI John Cooper Works Buggy
X-raid MINI John Cooper
Works Team
030:09:20
+00:53:30
5th
Cyril
Despres
(FRA)
Jean Paul Cottret
(FRA)
308
MINI John Cooper Works
Buggy
X-raid MINI John Cooper Works
Team
031:31:17
+02:15:27
6th
Jakub
Przygonski
(POL)
Tom Colsoul
(BEL)
303
MINI John Cooper Works
Rally
Orlen
X-raid Team
031:35:40
+02:19:50
8th
Yazeed
Al-Rajhi
(KSA)
Timo Gottschalk
(GER)
314
MINI John Cooper Works
Rally
X-raid MINI John Cooper Works Rally
Team
033:10:47
+03:54:57
9th
Carlos
Sainz
(ESP)
Lucas Cruz
(ESP)
300
MINI John Cooper Works
Buggy
X-raid MINI John Cooper Works
Team
035:58:05
+06:42:15
12th
Boris
Garafulic
(CHI)
Filipe Palmeiro
(POR)
321
MINI John Cooper Works
Rally
X-raid MINI John Cooper Works Rally
Team