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MINI ALL4 Racing takes the mid-way lead in 2015 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge // 2015 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup, round two: MINI ALL4 Racing fill top three positions – Nasser Al-Attiyah tops leader board
Tue Mar 31 10:05:00 CEST 2015 Press Release
Munich (DE). Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) and his MINI ALL4 Racing ended the second leg (30 March) of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge (27 March – 2 April) at the top of the driver standings.
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Matthias Schepke
BMW Group
Munich (DE). Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) and his MINI ALL4 Racing ended the second leg (30 March) of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge (27 March – 2 April) at the top of the driver standings.
Nasser Al-Attiyah completed the 297 km ADNOC Special Stage in first place by 2min 7sec over second-placed and fellow MINI ALL4 Racing driver defending champion Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS). Nasser, who finished yesterday’s opening leg in fourth place now goes into the next Special Stage (31 March – Qasr Al Sarab, 272 km) with an overall advantage of 4min 13sec.
Speaking about the second leg, Nasser said: “It was a good day today. The stage was good but not easy with a lot of broken dunes. We did not take any risks until the last 50 km when we pushed hard. The MINI ALL4 Racing is working really well and we are looking forward to the next stage.”
Vladimir Vasilyev continues his defence of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge he won last year with today’s second place in his MINI ALL4 Racing to match the second place recorded in yesterday’s opening Special Stage. Vladimir now sits in second place in the overall standings “Yesterday was a good result for us,” said Vladimir. “Today we hoped for better but we had to stop for a puncture and this obviously meant we lost time.”
MINI ALL4 Racing driver Orlando Terranova (ARG) continued to make his mark on the 25th edition of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge with a fine third place in today’s Special Stage that sees him net sixth place in the overall standings after the first two legs. “It is not an easy race and we started today with a relaxed pace until we learned the dunes and then gained pace, which the MINI ALL4 Racing responded to very well.”
MINI ALL4 Racing driver Erik Van Loon (NL) completed today’s second leg in fifth place with the reward being placed in third spot in the race standings.
All told, after two legs of the 2015 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, six MINI ALL4 Racing sit comfortably in the top ten standings. Newcomer to the MINI ALL4 Racing crew Harry Hunt (GBR) is showing remarkable skill and determination in his first race with the MINI ALL4 Racing. Today’s eighth-placed result and yesterday’s sixth position has placed Harry in a credible seventh place overall. Stephan Schott (DE) and his MINI ALL4 Racing round off the top ten after 9th and 14th place finishes.
2015 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup, round two:
Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge
MINI ALL4 Racing driver standings after two legs
Position | Driver | Co-driver | Elapsed race time (to date) |
1 | Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) | Mathieu Baumel (FRA) | 7:15.04 |
2 | Vladimir Vasiyev (RUS) | Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) | +0:04.13 |
3 | Erik Van Loon (NLD) | Wouter Rosegaar (NLD) | +0:17.39 |
6 | Orlando Terranova (ARG) | Bernardo Graue (ARG) | +0:25.52 |
7 | Harry Hunt (GBR) | Andreas Schulz (DEU) | +0:25.55 |
10 | Stephan Schott (DE) | Xavier Panseri (FRA) | +0:53.32 |
Race calendar: 2015 FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies.
20/02 – 22/02 Baja Russia
27/03 – 02/04 Abu Dhabi Desert
Challenge
18/04 – 24/04 Sealine Cross-Country Rally Qatar
10/05 – 17/05 Pharaons Rally
25/06 – 28/06 Italian Baja
24/07 – 26/07 Baja Aragón
13/08 – 16/08 HunGarian Baja
03/10 – 09/10 Rallye du Maroc
22/10 – 24/10 Baja Portalegre 500