Media Information
Dakar Rally 2018
20 January 2018
Dakar Rally 2018
–
Finale, Cordoba
- Four MINI crews complete Dakar Rally 2018.
- Przygonski / Colsoul finish sixth to maintain fifth place overall.
- Boris Garafulic / Filipe Palmeiro move up to 13th.
Munich. Dakar 2018 is over and, according to some of the MINI
competitors, the 40th edition of the world-famous race
was the toughest Dakar they have ever experienced. The past two
weeks, ending in a short Stage 14 in Argentine city Cordoba today,
has thrown many challenges at the drivers and navigators and only 43
of the 92 auto crews that started the race accomplished a Dakar
finish. Four of the seven MINI crews entered were among the 43 auto
crews who successfully completed what is, arguably, the world’s
toughest rally.
The greatest achievement has been that of Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski
(POL) and co-driver Tom Colsoul (BEL) who secured a solid fifth place
overall in their MINI John Cooper Works Rally (#312). Przygonski’s
previous Dakar experience and the misfortune that befell some of his
fellow MINI crews in this year’s edition of the race, urged the Polish
driver to exercise some caution and take a safe and steady route to
the front of the field. His sensible approach paid off with him taking
the accolade of first MINI to complete the 2018 Dakar.
A strong Stage 13 yesterday saw Boris Garafulic (CHI) and co-driver
Filipe Palmeiro (POR) in the #317 MINI John Cooper Works Rally finish
in 7th place to move three places up the general rankings
to 13th ahead of the final stage today. A 12th
place finish in today’s final 120km special stage ensured the pairing
maintained their overall placing of 13th at the race end.
For Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) and co-driver Andreas Schulz (GER) in the
MINI John Cooper Works Buggy (#305) yesterday was a fun stage and left
them feeling happy ahead of the final stage, even though the end
result is not what they hoped for. A 15th place finish
today saw the pairing end the race in 19th overall, but in
doing so they made Dakar history as the first ever driver and
co-driver to complete the race in the new MINI JCW Buggy, which made
its debut this year. Hirvonen has been amazed by the buggy’s
performance and believes the vehicle is a strong future Dakar contender.
Close behind Hirvonen in today’s stage and final rankings were
Orlando Terranova (ARG) and Bernardo Graue (ARG) in the MINI John
Cooper Works Rally (#307). A 16th place stage finish in
Cordoba saw the pairing remain inside the top 20 at the finish line.
It was not the result that local driver Terranova had aimed for, but
he is focused now on analysing the data from the race to understand
how to improve in future Dakar.
The MINI crews, along with the other competitors, now head to the end
of race ceremony to join a huge 40th anniversary party
staged by the organisers, which is expected to be attended by
thousands of spectators.
MINI Family reports: Finale
Sebastian Mackensen, Head of MINI
“Congratulations to this year’s Dakar winner, Carlos Sainz. And a
huge well done and congratulations also go to Kuba Przygonski and Tom
Colsoul on a hard-fought fifth place in the MINI John Cooper Works
Rally. We are happy for the team and are proud of this performance. We
knew how difficult it would be to make it onto the podium in Cordoba
in one of the MINI John Cooper Works this year. Despite the early
retirements and setbacks in this particularly unforgiving edition of
the Dakar, the X-raid team of Sven Quandt showed great morale,
fighting spirit and the team spirit typical of MINI, and refused to be
discouraged, even in the face of bizarre racing incidents. Everyone
who made it to the finish line at the Dakar deserves the greatest
respect. We are looking forward to the next Dakar – we will be taking
on this ultimate rally challenge once again in 2019!”
Sven Quandt, X-raid Team Principal
“It was quite a mixed Dakar; from the drivers’ side I think there
were unfortunately some mistakes that pulled us back quite a bit, but
on the technical side we were astonished. The new MINI John Cooper
Works Buggy was really impressive and lasted without any problems.
Performance-wise it really showed that this is the right weapon for
the future but the MINI John Cooper Works Rally was also good and,
until Nani dropped out early due to a big hit in the car, we were in a
good position. From a safety side, the cars were incredible; you could
nearly make any roll and nobody was in jeopardy. Even if the car was
20 or 40kg heavier it didn’t matter because we had super-safe cars and
that’s the most important thing for this race. Kuba did an incredible
performance – driving very steady all the way through from the
beginning. Fifth place is an incredible result for him. He shadowed
the leaders throughout the race, getting closer to the front and
nobody was watching him. He and Tom made no mistakes – this is how you
do a Dakar.”
Jakub Przygonski
“We are so happy to be at the finish. It was a tough race and not so
easy. We checked and all of guys in front of us are very experienced
at Dakar so we are happy to be in such a good group. I am one of the
youngest, for sure, in the top five and top ten so I think we have to
get some more experience and then we will be really, really fast. It
was a good race for me and Tom, we had a good connection inside the
car and our car was really good. For sure, the car was better than
last year with less weight and better suspension and tyres. We had no
issues all race, the car was definitely faster and everything worked
really good for us.”
Orlando Terranova
“It was a difficult two weeks for the whole team. We never had a
clean stage this year, with different problems of navigation or
mistakes, but the only good thing was to push when we could in some
stages and feel that the car was fast and we were on the pace. It was
not a good Dakar for me but we need to analyse now and work out how to
improve. The car is amazing; the response of the engine and the new
package of suspension and tyres is very good.”
Mikko Hirvonen
“It’s been an amazing adventure again even though we didn’t get the
result we wanted. It was definitely the toughest Dakar I have done
even though I don’t have a lot of Dakar under my belt yet. This one is
how I always imagined it would be and it was a tough two weeks but
really fantastic. It’s a shame we didn’t get the result because the
mechanics and the whole team worked so hard before Christmas to get
everything ready. But, still I think everybody can be happy with the
car they built because we were really quick in some places, even
though the stage results didn’t always show it due to some mistakes. I
think we can be really proud of what the team has done in the last six
months – this Dakar has been hard work for everybody.”
Dakar Rally 2018
: MINI final standings