2015 Dakar Rally: Nasser Al-Attiyah defends his lead in the overall classification ahead of the rest day // Six MINI ALL4 Racing cars finish in the top ten on stage eight.
Munich (DE). Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel (QT/FR) are still leading the overall classification at halftime at the 2015 Dakar Rally. The duo finished special stage eight in third position right ahead of its biggest opponents De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz, who are now 8:27 minutes behind in the overall classification.
Orlando Terranova (AR) and his co-driver Bernardo Graue (AR) in the MINI ALL4 Racing also posted a strong result on day eight of this year’s Dakar. The two Argentineans finished one place ahead of Al-Attiyah/Baumel in second position.
Four more MINI ALL4 Racing cars were in the top ten on Sunday. Krzysztof Holowczyc/Xavier Panseri (PL/FR) kept there steady pace today crossing the line in fifth position. They defended their fourth place in the overall classification.
Joan “Nani” Roma/Michel Périn (ES/FR) in the MINI ALL4 Racing were also in the top ten again posting the sixth fastest time. Vladimir Vasilyev/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RU/RU) were in eighth position followed by Boris Garafulic/Filipe Palmeiro (CL/PT), who finished within the top ten in the MINI ALL4 Racing for the first at this year’s Dakar Rally.
Leg eight lead from Uyuni in Bolivia back to Iquique in Chile where the Dakar was on Friday already. Today the drivers completed the second day of the so-called marathon stages. On two days the drivers couldn’t call upon their support teams.
The 784 kilometre-long special stage eight was held on a dried out salt lake called Salar de Uyuni where the drivers were able to go flat out for several hundred kilometres. Later they entered a 274 kilometre-long neutralization section before heading into a 38 kilometre sprint to Iquique at the Pacific Coast.
On Monday the drivers will be able to re-charge their batteries on the rest day in Chile while the teams will be able to set-up the cars for the second part of the toughest rally in the world. There are still five stages to go until the Dakar reaches the finish line in Buenos Aires (AR) on Saturday.
Overall classification after leg 8 (Top 6).
- 01 Al-Attiyah/Baumel – MINI ALL4 Racing – 26:41:15h
- 02 De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz – 26:49:42h
- 03 Al Rajhi/Gottschalk – 26:59:55h
- 04 Holowczyc/Panseri – MINI ALL4 Racing – 27:35:53h
- 05 Ten Brinke/Colsoul – 28:04:07h
- 06 Van Loon/Rosegaar – MINI ALL4 Racing – 28:07:06h
Coming up – Day 9 (12 January 2015).
- Rest day Iquique
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)
