Media Information
Dakar Rally 2018
06 January 2018
Dakar Rally 2018
–
Stage 1: Lima – Pisco
- All seven MINI crews complete Dakar opening stage
-
Bryce Menzies leads the initial MINI charge in
4th position. -
Joan ‘Nani’ Roma completes the stage just 15 seconds behind
Menzies in 5th place
.
Munich. The first stage of the 40th edition of
Dakar is complete with all seven MINI crews completing the 31km
special stage. The #310 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy of Dakar
rookies Bryce Menzies (USA) and Peter Mortensen (USA) was the
fastest MINI in this year’s race opener, closely followed by the
#302 MINI John Cooper Works Rally of the experienced Joan ‘Nani’
Roma (ESP) and co-driver Alex Haro (ESP).
The crews were happy with the race start and took advantage of the
hot, sandy terrain to establish a good feeling in their vehicles and
prepare themselves for the next challenging 13 stages.
For American Bryce Menzies, today was the realisation of a long-held
dream and he was delighted to have finished the opening stage in
4th place, within close reach of the leaders. Speaking of
his first Dakar experience, Menzies said: “To start my first stage in
Dakar was unbelievable; it’s been my dream and goal to compete in this
race so I had a lot of emotions and a lot of nerves, but once we
started going it was a short 30km. The driving wasn’t too hard, we had
a lot of tracks in front of us and we made one mistake and had to come
back to a waypoint, but other than that it was fine and I’m really
looking forward to stage 2.
“I’m blown away with how the car handles. The new two-wheel drive
MINI works really well and we have a lot more dune days, which this
car works really good at so . I’m looking forward to the rest of the
rally and I think we have a great shot at this. Hopefully, we can stay
in the top five for the first week and be consistent, which I think
with this car we can, and then from there we’ll push.”
Just behind the #310 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy at the stage finish
was Joan ‘Nani’ Roma and co-pilot Alex Haro in 5th place in
the all-wheel drive #302 MINI John Cooper Works Rally. Speaking after
the stage, Roma said: “The stage was ok, it was really short but
intense. It was not important to win today but it was difficult to
decide on setting the correct speed. The route was 100% sand and the
visibility was horrible, but we drove well and had a really good
feeling in the car.”
It was a learning stage for Mikko Hirvonen (FIN), who is still
adapting to driving on sandy terrain, but he and co-driver Andreas
Schulz (DEU) were happy with an 8th place finish in the
#305 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy.
Hirvonen said: “Today’s stage was ok and I feel happy that we finally
started. Driving in the sand is still the most difficult part for me
so in a stage like today it’s important for me to find the best way to
drive in the dunes. I am still a bit hesitant and braking in areas
where I don’t need to so it’s a bit up and down and frustrating that I
can’t go as fast as I would like, but the car felt good and I think it
was a pretty good start for us.”
Just behind them in 9th position was the #312 MINI John
Cooper Works Rally of Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL) and Tom Colsoul
(BEL). Przygonski said: “The short stage was good after the prologue,
which was quite tricky because there were some really hard dunes to
pass and a lot of spectators everywhere. The route was quite difficult
and we had some small navigation issues but we finished and, for us,
the race begins today.”
Boris Garafulic (CHI) and Filipe Palmeiro (POR) led home the final
three MINI crews, crossing the line in 12th place in the
#317 MINI John Cooper Works Rally, ahead of Yazeed Al Rajhi (KSA) and
Timo Gottschalk (DEU) in 13th position and Orlando
Terranova (ARG) and Bernardo Graue (ARG) in 14th.
Yazeed Al Rajhi: “It was a good first stage but we were concentrating
on finding the feeling and not making mistakes. If you wanted to push
you have to take risks and, for us, we see this is as a long race. The
buggy is good but we didn’t try to attack today. I think tomorrow we
will try to push a little bit and improve our position.”
Orlando Terranova: “It was a nice stage to warm up, get the feeling
in the car and relax. We got rid of any stress today so that we are
ready for the race.”
Competitors will remain in the sandy terrain of Pisco for tomorrow’s
stage 2 of Dakar 2018, please visit the host’s event home page here for more information.
Dakar Rally 2018
: MINI results after stage 1
Pos
Driver
Co-driver
#
MINI
Team
Time
4
Bryce
Menzies
(USA)
Peter Mortensen
(USA)
310
MINI John Cooper Works Buggy
X-raid Team
000:22:29
+00:00:38
5
Joan ‘Nani’
Roma
(ESP)
Alex Haro
(ESP)
302
MINI John Cooper Works Rally
X-raid Team
000:22:44
+00:00:53
8
Mikko
Hirvonen
(FIN)
Andreas Schulz
(DEU)
305
MINI John Cooper Works Buggy
X-raid Team
000:23:27
+00:01:36
9
Jakub
Przygonski
(POL)
Tom Colsoul
(BEL)
312
MINI John Cooper Works Rally
Orlen Team
000:23:36
+00:01:45
12
Boris
Garafulic
(CHI)
Filipe Palmeiro
(POR)
317
MINI John Cooper Works Rally
X-raid Team
000:24:14
+00:02:23
13
Yazeed Al
Rajhi
(KSA)
Timo Gottschalk
(DEU)
314
MINI John Cooper Works Buggy
X-raid Team
000:24:17
+00:02:26
14
Orlando
Terranova
(ARG)
Bernardo Graue
(Arg)
307
MINI John Cooper Works Rally
X-raid Team
000:24:24
+00:02:33