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Joan “Nani” Roma claims his first stage win at the 2015 Dakar Rally // MINI one-two-three win on leg nine // MINI ALL4 Racing extends its lead in the overall classification to almost 24 minutes.
Tue Jan 13 22:16:00 CET 2015 Press Release
MINI is continuing to show a dominant pace at the 2015 Dakar Rally. Joan “Nani” Roma and his co-driver Michel Périn, the 2014 Dakar Champions, have won stage nine at the Dakar claiming their first stage win at this year’s event. The MINI ALL4 Racing has won eight out of nine stages at the 2015 Dakar Rally so far.
Press Release.
13 January 2015.
Joan “Nani” Roma claims his first stage win at the 2015 Dakar
Rally // MINI one-two-three win on leg nine // MINI ALL4 Racing
extends its lead in the overall classification to almost 24 minutes.
Munich (DE). MINI is continuing to show a dominant pace at the 2015
Dakar Rally. Joan “Nani” Roma and his co-driver Michel Périn, the 2014
Dakar Champions, have won stage nine at the Dakar claiming their first
stage win at this year’s event. The MINI ALL4 Racing has won eight out
of nine stages at the 2015 Dakar Rally so far.
Roma/Périn, who had achieved two stage podiums and five top ten
positions after a difficult start into the event, showed great
navigation skills on the 451 kilometre-long leg finishing 6:27 minutes
ahead of the rest of the field.
“This win is for my guys and the team,” Roma said. “They did a
great job. Today, we finally experienced a trouble-free day and didn’t
encounter the slightest problem. And Michel once again delivered in
sensational style. The special stage was an extreme challenge. The
dunes weren’t that difficult but afterwards, the going got really
tough.”
Roma and Périn took the right turn at a waypoint after 300
kilometre while a lot of other drivers got lost. It was the key to
success today. “Here, you had to follow the compass direction
absolutely exactly,” Périn said. “But many of the others yawed and
consequently lost their way.”
It was an all MINI podium on day eleven at the Dakar: Nasser
Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel (QT/FR) posted the second fastest time on
Tuesday, Vladimir Vasilyev/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RU/RU) in another MINI
ALL4 Racing followed in a strong third place.
Al-Attiyah/Baumel extended their lead in the overall
classification by almost 16 minutes. They are now 23:58 minutes ahead
of their closest opponents De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz, who were almost
22 minutes behind today.
“This was the most difficult stage of the Dakar so far, we are
so very happy to get to the finish,” Al-Attiyah said. “The main thing
was just to be calm and easy, as the wind and the dust meant that we
couldn’t see the road. Thank you again to my co-driver Mathieu Baumel,
who was perfect. I hope together we’ve done a good job and that it’s
enough to bring us closer to winning the Dakar.”
On leg nine from Iquique (CL) to Calama (CL) the drivers had to
tackle some high and very challenging dunes again. Later they had to
master bumpy mountain roads with very loose gravel and a lot of
potholes. The tricky terrain was extremely hard on the tires. Thus a
lot of drivers had to change their damaged wheels during the day.
Six MINI ALL4 Racing finished within the top ten on Tuesday.
Krzysztof Holowczyc/Xavier Panseri (PL/FR) were in sixth followed by
Orlando Terranova/Bernardo Graue (AR/AR). Erik van Loon/Wouter
Rosegaar (NL/NL) in the MINI ALL4 Racing crossed the line in ninth
place moving up one position in the overall classification. The Dutch
duo is now in fifth, one position behind Holowczyc/Panseri.
On Wednesday the Dakar will cross the Andes again on its way
back to Argentina. The air will be very thin again as the cars go up
to almost 5,000 metres above sea level on the way from Calama (CL) to
Salta (AR). Stage ten will be held at an altitude of up to 4,400
metres and will be another tough challenge for cars and drivers alike.
Overall classification
after leg 9 (Top 5).
01 Al-Attiyah/Baumel - MINI ALL4 Racing - 31:29:38h
02 De
Villiers/Von Zitzewitz - 31:53:36h
03 Al Rajhi/Gottschalk -
32:09:07h
04 Holowczyc/Panseri – MINI ALL4 Racing - 32:47:19h
05 Van Loon/Rosegaar – MINI ALL4 Racing - 33:31:24h
Coming up.
Day 11 (14 January 2015).
Start/finish: Calama/Salta (Leg 10)
Total distance: 860 km, Special stage: 359 km, Liaison: 501 km
MINI ALL4 Racing 2015 Dakar Rally Lineup.
Monster Energy Rally Raid Team.
#300 Nani Roma/Michel Périn (ES/FR)
#305 Orlando Terranova/Bernardo „Ronnie“ Graue (AR/AR)
#306 Krzysztof Holowczyc/Xavier Panseri (PL/FR)
X-raid Team.
#310 Vladimir Vasilyev/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RU/RU)
#314 Erik van Loon/Wouter Rosegaar (NL/NL)
#319 Boris Garafulic/Filipe Palmeiro (CL/PT)
#329 Aidyn Rakhimbayev/Anton Nikolaev (KZ/RU)
#332 Zhou
Yong/Andreas Schulz (CN/DE)
#334 Stephan Schott/Holm Schmidt (DE/DE)
Qatar Rally Team.
#301 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel (QT/FR)
Find more photos and videos in high resolution of the Dakar participants in the MINI ALL4 Racing on the BMW Media Website by clicking here.
Media contact.
BMW Sports Communications
Danilo Coglianese
Telephone:
+49-176-601-72405
E-mail:
danilo.coglianese@bmwgroup.com
Media website:
www.press.bmwgroup-sport.com
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/MINI
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/MINImotorsport