Media Information
Dakar Rally 2019
07 January 2019
Dakar Rally 2019
–
Stage 01, Lima – Pisco
-
First stage of Dakar 2019 ends with three MINI cars in the
top five. - All eight MINI crews arrive at Pisco – five inside the top ten.
- Carlos Sainz in the MINI JCW Buggy sits comfortable in second.
- Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL) places MINI JCW Rally third.
Munich. Dakar 2019 is the 41st edition of the
unique Dakar Rally and today (7th January) saw the first
of ten stages finish with good news for MINI Motorsport and
motorsport partner X-raid when all eight MINI crews completed the
331 km Stage 1 without incident.
Leading the charge into tomorrow’s Stage 2 for MINI Motorsport will
be the Spanish pairing of Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz of X-raid MINI
JCW Team. The defending Dakar title holders placed their MINI JCW
Buggy in second place at stage end.
Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL) and co-driver Tom Colsoul (BEL) –
winners of the 2018 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup – continued
their run of good form by placing their MINI JCW Rally third overall.
Fifth place was filled by the second of five MINI JCW Rally cars
competing in this year’s Dakar, crewed by Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA) and
long-term co-driver Timo Gottschalk (GER).
The fourth MINI vehicle inside the top ten was the MINI JCW Buggy of
Stéphane Peterhansel (FRA) / David Castera (FRA) in seventh spot.
Three places further back in tenth spot and just 4min 25sec off the
winning time was the third MINI JCW Buggy of Frenchmen Cyril Despres
and Jean Paul Cottret.
Just outside of the top ten were the two MINI JCW Rally cars of Joan
‘Nani’ Roma (ESP) / Alex Haro (ESP) and Orlando Terranova (ARG) /
Bernardo ‘Ronnie’ Graue (ARG). The two MINI crews finished in
11th and 12th respectively.
Boris Garafulic (CHI) and co-driver Filipe Palmeiro (POR) in the
fifth MINI John Cooper Works Rally completed Stage 1 16th
overall from a starting list of 100 competitors in the Auto category.
Carlos Sainz
“Really no major problems. We knew more or less what we were going to
find and we stuck to our plan. We didn’t want to open tomorrow so we
took it a bit easy.”
Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski
“It was quite a tough special stage, only 80kms but it was really
fast and the shadows cast from the sun being up in the clouds made
visibility more difficult, so it was not so easy to see where the
dunes went up or down. But we were pushing with no risks and we were
really happy that we could keep with the rhythm of the Dakar legends.
Tomorrow is for sure a long stage and the start of the race.”
Yazeed Al-Rajhi
“It was a good day, we drove well and didn’t take any risks. We were
stuck in the dust of Harry Hunt for a long time but it was all ok and
we are fifth now, which is good.”
Stéphane Peterhansel
“The first stage is always the same story when we start the race
after a few weeks or months without racing – you feel not really
confident and especially because the dunes of Peru are not the same as
the dunes in Morocco for example. For me, I need a little bit of time
to be confident, so we decided to start not really with a full attack.”
Cyril Despres
“Dakar is always a mix of emotions; I love this race and I love this
job so day one always gives a good feeling. It was especially good
today because there was no pressure to push hard. It’s easy to enjoy
it when you are just in the rhythm – really cool!”
Joan ‘Nani’ Roma
“It’s always a little bit strange, the first day, and also the delay
for an hour is not easy when you are in your helmet ready. In the
beginning, I felt like I started really slowly but was so fast that I
caught Loeb in front of me and after that I really didn’t know if I
went fast; I really lost all of my point of reference. But anyway, it
is good to start tomorrow a little further back and that was partly
the plan. Maybe I lost a minute or two more than planned but it is ok.”
Orlando Terranova
“It was an easy first stage. We took it very easy to warm up and made
some final changes to the seat position; I achieved better speed in
the final 30 km so it was good.”
Next race is Stage 2, Pisco – San Juan de Marcona. For more
information about Dakar 2019, please visit the host’s event home page
here.
Dakar Rally 2019
: MINI standings after Stage 1
Pos
Driver
Co-driver
#
MINI
Team
Time
2nd
Carlos
Sainz
(ESP)
Lucas
Cruz
(ESP)
300
MINI
John Cooper Works Buggy
X-raid MINI JCW Team
001:03:40
+00:01:59
3rd
Jakub
Przygonski
(POL)
Tom Colsoul
(BEL)
303
MINI John Cooper Works Rally
Orlen X-raid Team
001:03:41
+00:02:00
5th
Yazeed
Al-Rajhi
(KSA)
Timo Gottschalk
(GER
314
MINI John Cooper Works Rally
X-raid MINI JCW Rally
Team
001:04:09
+00:02:28
7th
Stéphane
Peterhansel
(FRA)
David Castera
(FRA)
304
MINI John Cooper Works Buggy
X-raid MINI JCW Team
001:04:38
+00:02:57
10th
Cyril
Despres
(FRA)
Jean Paul Cottret
(FRA)
308
MINI John Cooper Works Buggy
X-raid MINI JCW Team
001:06:06
+00:04:25
11th
Joan
Roma
(ESP)
Alex
Haro
(ESP)
307
MINI
John Cooper Works Rally
X-raid MINI JCW Rally Team
001:06:26
+00:04:45
12th
Orlando
Terranova
(ARG)
Bernardo Graue
(ARG)
310
MINI John Cooper Works Rally
X-raid MINI JCW Rally
Team
001:06:51
+00:05:10
16th
Boris
Garafulic
(CHI)
Filipe Palmeiro
(POR)
321
MINI John Cooper Works Rally
X-raid MINI JCW Rally
Team
001:08:28
+00:06:47