MINI ALL4 Racing secures 11th stage win
· Orlando Terranova wins penultimate stage
· Vladimir Vasilyev finishes second
The
MINI ALL4 Racing is virtually unstoppable, in the 2015 Dakar. Today, in
the 12th stage – to Rosario – the Argentineans Orlando Terranova and
Bernardo ‘Ronnie’ Graue, racing for the Monster Energy Rally Raid Team,
celebrated their third stage win – and the 11th of the MINI ALL4 Racing
at the same time!
Vladimir Vasilyev and Konstantin Zhiltsov also once again secured a top result by finishing runner-up, today. In the overall standings, they gained another position and hold fifth, now. This means that four of the five top five positions are held by the MINI ALL4 Racing!
HOME WIN
Terranova
already tried to win the previous two stages on his home soil and
today, after two second places, he finally did it. “The route was really
nice,” said the Argentinean. “During the course of the special stage we
closed in on Nasser but then, we lost time in his dust. Trying to pass
him would have been just too dangerous. Later, however, I could push
again and secure the win.”
Meanwhile,
Vasilyev and Zhiltsov seemed to be on the way to securing their second
stage win for a long time but were passed by Terranova during the final
kilometres. “Today’s route definitely was more interesting and more
difficult than yesterday’s although it once again resembled a WRC
stage,” said Zhiltsov. “Today we pushed to a certain extent to try to
work our way further up. Tomorrow we want to push again as we think that
the other’s will do the same. Although you actually don’t do so, on the
final day.”
The
overall leaders, the Qatar Rally Team represented by Nasser Al-Attiyah
(QAT) and Mathieu Baumel (FRA), finished fourth today and extended their
lead with this result. Now, the driver from Qatar just has to survive
tomorrow’s final stage to secure his second Dakar win. “Today it was
only about contesting and finishing the stage,” said Al-Attiyah. “For
us, the special stage seemed to be really, really long. The route wasn’t
easy – partially extremely narrow and rocky. I tried to drive fast
enough to not lose my concentration. And that’s the approach will also
want to opt for tomorrow.”
Poland’s
Krzysztof Holowczyc and his French co-driver Xavier Panseri, also
representing the Monster Energy Rally Raid Team colours, came eighth,
thus consolidating their third place in the overall standings. Aidyn
Rakhimbayev (KAZ) and Anton Nikolaev (RUS) once again made it to the top
10 by finishing 10th and in addition, they hold the safe ninth place in
the overall standings. “This was fun and we were really fast,” said
co-driver Nikolaev. “We went off the track several times but didn’t lose
much time.”
DOUBLE DUTCH
The
two Dutchman Erik van Loon and Wouter Rosegaar finished 14th today,
nine minutes behind the winners, and still hold fourth place in the
overall standings. Right behind them, Boris Garafulic (CHI) and Filipe
Palmeiro (POR) came 15th, thus defending their 12th position in the
overall standings. 13th position still is held by China’s Zhou Yong who
finished 19th with his German navigator Andreas Schulz, today. German
pairing Stephan Schott / Holm Schmidt finished 25th, in stage 12, and
are 22nd in the overall standings.
Meanwhile, the Frenchmen Guerlain Chicherit and Alex Winoqc took their Buggy All Terrain to the really fine 11th place.
Tomorrow,
the competitors will contest the final stage of the 2015 Dakar Rally,
taking them back to Buenos Aires. The day begins with a 77-kilometre
liaison section, followed by 174 special-stage kilometres. And over the
course of the last 142 kilometres of this year’s Dakar, the winner
already may look forward to the podium in the Tecnopolis / Buenos Aires.
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