Dakar Rally 2019 – Stage 09, Pisco

Media Information

Dakar Rally 2019

16 January 2019

 

Dakar Rally 2019

Stage 09, Pisco – Pisco

 

  • MINI John Cooper Works Rally crew Joan ‘Nani’ Roma / Alex
    Haro complete Stage 9 in second to maintain second in the overall ranking.
  • Five MINI crews finish inside the top ten.
  • Stéphane Peterhansel retires from Stage 9 due to racing incident.

 

 

Munich. The Spanish duo of Joan ‘Nani’ Roma and co-driver Alex
Haro put in another strong performance throughout Stage 9. From the
start of the penultimate stage, Roma pushed hard in an effort to
reduce the time difference to the Dakar 2019 leading car before
tomorrow’s final stage. The end result of the 313 km Special Stage
was another fine second place for the MINI John Cooper Works Rally
crew and still second in the overall ranking.

 

Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL) and co-driver Tom Colsoul (BEL) also
placed well after tackling the Pisco loop and taking in dunes that had
previously wrecked many competitors’ chances of completing Dakar 2019.
The MINI John Cooper Works Rally crew eventually crossed the stage
finish point in fourth – the same position they presently sit in the
overall ranking.

 

Carlos Sainz (ESP) and co-driver Lucas Cruz (ESP) did not get the
start they wanted today. A problem occurred before the start of the
stage, which meant he missed the allotted start slot but did manage to
get underway as the last car. An excellent drive eventually saw the
MINI John Cooper Works crew finish sixth, but they may be subject to a penalty.

 

Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA) / Timo Gottschalk (GER), also in a MINI John
Cooper Works Rally, were the fourth MINI crew to complete Stage 9
inside the top ten. Their eighth in stage now places them seventh in
the overall ranking.

 

Just over 6 minutes later and in ninth place was the MINI John Cooper
Works Buggy of Cyril Despres (FRA) and co-driver Jean Paul Cottret
(FRA). A remarkable result in itself, because at approximately 290km
into the stage – and with the finish point nearly in sight –  the car
flipped on a dune. Time was lost in getting it back on track, which
was unfortunate because until this incident the MINI crew were classed
as virtual stage leaders in the live stage ranking.

 

Boris Garafulic (CHI) and co-driver Filipe Palmeiro (POR) put in a
good race today in a determined effort to complete Dakar 2019 with a
top ten race position. Today’s fifteenth sees them retain 12th
place overall

 

The MINI John Cooper Works Buggy crew of Stéphane Peterhansel and
co-driver David Castera unfortunately had their worst day at this
year’s Dakar. After a hard impact at 26km into the stage, co-driver
David Castera complained of severe back pain, which resulted in
Castera having to be transported to hospital in Lima for medical
treatment. Stéphane Peterhansel was unharmed in the incident and was
able to return the car to the X-raid service park. The French pairing
starting tomorrow’s final stage does not look possible.

 

Nani Roma

“It was a really hard day again with a lot of stop-starts. We had a
puncture after 38 kilometres, in the middle of the sand, I don’t know
why, and I had to stop in the sand to change the wheel. For the rest,
we tried to concentrate and not make too many mistakes. It was a
difficult stage but we have only one day left to finish the Dakar.

 

“It’s one of the toughest Dakars I have ever raced and every
kilometre is really tough, but we’re happy. The mechanics and the team
have worked so well on the car; it’s perfect and we haven’t had any
issues. Tomorrow we need to continue but not push too hard to finish
the race.”

 

Jakub Przygonski

“Stage 9 was really difficult; I think it was the hardest stage in
this Dakar because it was almost 70% dunes where the sand was so soft.
In some places, we couldn’t reach the top so we had to go back and try
one more time.

 

“Today, we started with the plan to fight because there was only a
small difference between our time and Despres. We were fighting until
the end when suddenly we were stuck and lost around 12 minutes. In the
end, we reached the finish and heard that a lot had happened on this
stage. It was not an easy stage to finish but we did well and tomorrow
we have the last stage.”

 

Yazeed Al-Rajhi

“Today was good but the stage was hard and there was difficult
navigation in one area but we didn’t lose a lot of time although I
think a lot more people did lose time in that area.”

 

Cyril Despres

“We stopped for Stéphane a few kilometres after the start. I know
that David is a particularly tough guy so we were a bit afraid when he
was inside the car and could not get out. It’s never nice to see
somebody like this. So then we kept going, we got good speed and
everything was good until 299km – only 14km from the end – there was a
waypoint that was not easy to find.

 

“We turned around to look for the waypoint and then, coming up on top
of the dunes, we saw a bike coming up so we slowly put the front of
the car into a small hole to avoid an accident. Martin Prokop stopped
to help, so we would like to thank him. We kept going but the last
part was not easy.”

 

Next race is Stage 10 (Pisco – Lima) and is the final 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 9

 

Pos

Driver

Co-driver

#

MINI

Team

Time

2nd

 

 

Joan
Roma
(ESP)

Alex
Haro
(ESP)

307

MINI
John Cooper Works Rally

X-raid MINI John Cooper Works Rally
Team

034:0:39

+00:51:27

4th

 

Jakub
Przygonski
(POL)

Tom Colsoul
(BEL)

303

MINI John Cooper Works Rally

Orlen X-raid Team

035:43:03

+02:33:51

5th

 

Cyril
Despres
(FRA)

Jean Paul Cottret
(FRA)

308

MINI John Cooper Works Buggy

X-raid MINI John Cooper Works
Team

036:04:25

+02:55:13

7th

 

 

Yazeed
Al-Rajhi
(KSA)

Timo Gottschalk
(GER)

314

MINI John Cooper Works Rally

X-raid MINI John Cooper Works Rally
Team

037:37:34

+04:28:22

8th

 

Carlos
Sainz
(ESP)

Lucas
Cruz
(ESP)

300

MINI
John Cooper Works Buggy

X-raid MINI John Cooper Works Team

040:10:00

+07:00:48

12th

 

Boris
Garafulic
(CHI)

Filipe Palmeiro
(POR)

321

MINI John Cooper Works Rally

X-raid MINI John Cooper Works Rally
Team

041:38:18

+08:29:06