Media Information
Dakar Rally 2018
07 January 2018
Dakar Rally 2018
–
Stage 2: Pisco – Pisco
- Extreme dunes and soft sand prove troublesome for Stage 2 competitors.
-
Orlando Terranova completes Stage 2 with fifth place finish.
Hirvonen takes seventh. - Three MINI crews inside overall top ten.
-
Bryce Menzies / Pete Mortensen forced to retire from their
first ever Dakar.
Munich. Stage 2 of Dakar 2018 ended with mixed fortunes for
the MINI Family. The pairing of Orlando
Terranova (ARG) and Bernardo Graue (ARG) in a MINI John Cooper
Works Rally achieved a high with their 5th place finish.
Following up in 7th place was the MINI John Cooper Works
Buggy of Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) and co-driver Andreas Schulz (DEU).
Despite his hard-earned Stage 2 result – and now 6th place
in the overall standings – Terranova was not completely satisfied
with how the day’s racing went: “It was a good start to the real race
day. We tried to make a clean stage but then, 20 kilometres before the
end of the stage, we make a small mistake and lost several minutes –
I’m not happy about that but, ok, it is a race. The car is perfect; on
the physical parts of the stage the feel we have is very good.”
Mikko Hirvonen also paid the price for a small mistake with
navigation, which resulted in losing slight but precious time during
Stage 2. However, his careful completion of both stages to date has
resulted in Hirvonen sitting 7th overall after two days of racing.
Hirvonen: It was a difficult start to the race but I
am happy with the way it went. I didn’t take any crazy risks because
it is a new car and different kind of dunes. The car was going really
well. There was one waypoint we missed and it took three or four
minutes to get back up a steep hill to it. Other than that it wasn’t
too bad.”
Joan ‘Nani’ Roma (ESP) and co-pilot Alex Haro (ESP) had a very
difficult Stage 2 because of the soft sand and high dunes that were
encountered. “We expected it to be hard,” said Roma, “but not to the
level we had. I pushed hard and we nearly lose the bonnet so we had to
stop to repair. It is part of the game – when you play the official
race it can be so difficult and you need to be really careful because
it can be dangerous. It is a pity to lose Bryce after such few
kilometres. It is hard but it is a race!”
Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL) and Tom Colsoul (BEL) completed Stage 2
in 16th place – a good result considering that co-driver
Colsoul was a victim of severe sickness that required careful and
considerate driving by Przygonski to get them to the finish line.
Przygonski: “Today was a really tough stage; long
hard dunes and the main problem we had was Tom was sick – he had big
sickness. Inside the car was not so good because we had no suitable
treatment; we had to stop in the dunes and lost a little time. The
important thing now is for Tom to recover, to get him to feel better.
The car was really good with no issues. Not such a good stage but we
are here and the car is ok.”
The biggest shock of the day was the retirement of Dakar first-timers
Bryce Menzies (USA) and Peter Mortensen (USA). After a superb 4th
place after Stage 1, the crew of the all-new MINI John Cooper Works
Buggy, unfortunately, became victims of bad luck that resulted in a crash.
Menzies: “I’m alright. I was more worried about my
co-driver – he ended up breaking his ankle. We started the day off
running on a grated road when Pete called out a double caution. I
checked up and saw it and thought it was a smaller bump than it was.
We hit it and unloaded the rear and it went to the front bumper. I
think we flipped six or seven times. It’s not what I wanted to do for
my first Dakar. I feel really bad for the whole team because of all
the work they did to get the car here and get behind me. All I can do
now beside work as hard as I can to come back next year – and come
back strong.”
There were many racing incidents throughout Stage 2 and the MINI
crews of
Boris Garafulic (CHI) / Filipe Palmeiro (POR) and Yazeed Al Rajhi
(KSA) and Timo Gottschalk (DEU) were just two such victims. It appears
that despite this, all crew members are in good health and are
expected to line up for tomorrow’s Stage 3.
Tomorrow’s Stage 3 of Dakar 2018 consists of 504km distance, Pisco –
San Juan de Marcona. For more information please visit the host’s
event home page here.
Dakar Rally 2018
: MINI results after Stage 2
Pos
Driver
Co-driver
#
MINI
Team
Time
6
Orlando
Terranova
(ARG)
Bernardo Graue
(Arg)
307
MINI John Cooper Works Rally
X-raid Team
003:34:08
+00:12:50
7
Mikko
Hirvonen
(FIN)
Andreas Schulz
(DEU)
305
MINI John Cooper Works Buggy
X-raid Team
003:34:08
+00:12:50
10
Joan ‘Nani’
Roma
(ESP)
Alex Haro
(ESP)
302
MINI John Cooper Works Rally
X-raid Team
003:42:06
+00:20:48
13
Jakub
Przygonski
(POL)
Tom Colsoul
(BEL)
312
MINI John Cooper Works Rally
Orlen Team
003:47:21
+00:26:03
TBC
Yazeed Al
Rajhi
(KSA)
Timo Gottschalk
(DEU)
314
MINI John Cooper Works Buggy
X-raid Team
TBC
Boris
Garafulic
(CHI)
Filipe Palmeiro
(POR)
317
MINI John Cooper Works Rally
X-raid Team