Most liked posts in thread: Dakar 2016

The Peugeots look good this year.









Dakar rookie Sebastian Loeb will be driving one of them, along with some guy named Sainz.





Those who've followed WRC over the last decade will recognize the name next to Loeb's in the pic above as belonging to Loeb's long time WRC do-driver, Daniel Elena. Loeb's comments re Elena and his lack of cross country rally experience aren't exactly encouraging...

Lots more info about Peugeot's entry here.

 

354 competitor vehicles this year: 143 bikes, 110 cars, 55 trucks and 46 quads.

 

What the heck is that thing? Never mind, D-10!

 

Day 1 is a short one. Results are rolling in. Meanwhile, here is the MINI ALL4 Racing line-up.

Dakar is go: 12 MINI ALL4 Racing line up for the start of the 2016 Dakar Rally.

01 January 2016

MINI prepares to achieve fifth consecutive Dakar Rally win with strongest line up yet of MINI ALL4 Racing and crews.

Munich. New Year, new challenges: 2 January 2016 will see the start of the 2016 Dakar Rally, the traditional season opener of long-distance cross-country rallies. Once again MINI takes on this exciting and exacting 9,500km, 15 day racing event but this year with a record entry of 12 MINI ALL4 Racing cars.

Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) and long-term co-pilot Mathieu Baumel (FRA) of AXION X-raid Team (#300) are the defending Dakar champions and more than ready to take up the challenge of motorsport’s toughest endurance race. “Preparation is complete,†said Al-Attiyah in Buenos Aires, starting point of the 2016 Dakar Rally.

“We are ready to take on the greatest endurance race in the hope we can achieve MINI the same success of 2015,†said Joan ‘Nani’ Roma (ESP), fellow AXION X-raid Team member in MINI ALL4 Racing #304 along with co-driver Alex Haro (ESP).

The Argentinean duo of Orlando Terranova and Bernardo ‘Ronnie’ Graue are also prepared for the challenge of Dakar in their AXION X-raid Team MINI ALL4 Racing (#310). “With more time spent at altitude and a long, tough second week, the 2016 Dakar is guaranteed to throw up some surprises – but that is what makes the Dakar so special,†said Terranova during the prerace Shakedown test.

The fourth MINI ALL4 Racing (#315) of Axion X-raid Team sees the pairing of Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) and Michel Périn (FRA). While Périn is a very experienced Dakar co-pilot, this year’s Dakar Rally is the first for former WRC competitor Hirvonen. “I’m very excited about taking part in the Dakar Rally. It’s been a long time coming and I hope to achieve a result that will reflect the team’s professionalism.â€

Competition for the Dakar title will, of course, come from every angle but especially the privateer MINI ALL4 Racing crews competing at the 2016 Dakar Rally. The continual success of MINI ALL4 Racing (e.g. Dakar Rally winner four years in succession 2012-2015) in long distance cross-country rally has led to an unprecedented eight privateer crews also lining up on the Dakar start line.

The eight crews are made up of experienced cross-country rally drivers and co-drivers from around the globe. For example, the MINI ALL4 Racing crew of Van Loon Racing (#306) consists of Dutch pairing Erik van Loon and Wouter Rosegaar.

The ORLEN Team consists of two MINI ALL4 Racing with the crews of Adam Malysz (POL) and Xavier Panseri (FRA) in #325, and Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL) with co-pilot Andrei Rudnitski (BLR) in #327.

Four further crews will drive under the banner of X-raid Team, one of which (#323) will feature the youngest MINI ALL4 Racing driver at this year’s Dakar Rally, Harry Hunt from Great Britain. Further extending the global appeal of the MINI ALL4 Racing is the Perfect China Health 100 Yong Team (#360) consisting of female driver Guo Meiling and co-driver Min Liao.

The 2016 edition of Dakar Rally starts 2nd January with a timed Prologue. The outcome of this 346km event decides the starting order for Stage 1 of the Dakar Rally, Rosario (“light bivouacâ€) to Carloz Paz, Sunday 3rd January.

2016 Dakar Rally MINI ALL4 Racing crew line-up:

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4
Driver	Co-driver	Car #	Team
Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)	Mathieu Baumel (FRA)	300	AXION X-raid Team
Joan ‘Nani’ Roma (ESP)	Alex Haro (ESP)	304	AXION X-raid Team
Orlando Terranova (ARG)	Bernardo “Ronnie†Graue (ARG)	310	AXION X-raid Team
Mikko Hirvonen (FIN)	Michel Périn (FRA)	315	AXION X-raid Team
Erik van Loon (NDL)	Wouter Rosegaar (NDL)	306	Van Loon Racing
Boris Garafulic (CHL)	Filipe Palmeiro (POR)	313	X-raid Team
Harry Hunt (GB)	Andreas Schulz (GER)	323	X-raid Team
Adam Malysz (POL)	Xavier Panseri (FRA)	325	ORLEN Team
Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL)	Andrei Rudnitski (BLR)	327	ORLEN Team
Stephan Schott (GER)	Holm Schmidt (GER)	331	X-raid Team
Nazareno Lopez (ARG)	Sergio Lafuente (URU)	351	X-raid Team
Guo Meiling (CHN)	Min Liao (CHN)	360	Perfect China Health 100 Yong Team

 

After all the bikes and quads and nearly 60 of the cars completed the prologue, calamity...very bad news.

You'll find #360 on the list in the post above...

 

Secretary of health says no deaths but 10 injured.

 

The 2016 Dakar is not off to a good start.

There was a nasty accident that stopped the running yesterday and today this.

Stage Cancelled

 

First full Dakar Rally stage canceled (racer.com)

 

11 spectators injured in Dakar prologue accident (motorsport.com)

 

Loeb's on a roll with another stage win, though some are predicting coming stages will be less forgiving of an inexperienced driver and navigator. "Inexperienced" being used here relative to this specific type of rallying, clearly. It's also a 1-2 for Peugeot with Sainz 2nd on the stage.

Hirvonen, the other rookie and former WRC driver, moves up to 4th overall for the MINI camp, Al-Atiyah up to 5th.

Top of the overall standings chart for cars:

 

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXUTy0E-obo"]Stage 3 Summary - Car/Bike - (Termas Rio Hondo / Jujuy) - YouTube[/ame]

 

Like they did for Loeb's Pike's Peak run, looks like Peugeot did their homework and prepared very, very well.

The top 3 today were all in Peugeots and after a marathon stage of 429km they somehow finished separated by only 27sec! The 4th placed driver on this stage, Al-Attiyah, finished a further 4min 30sec back.

Stage 4: Peterhansel wins as Peugeot dominates (motorsport.com)

De Villiers: the Peugeots look unbeatable (maxrally.com)

 

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgtUBfBvNJU"]Stage 4 Summary - Car/Bike - (Jujuy / Jujuy) - YouTube[/ame]

 

That confused me, too, and they keep talking about it so it's clearly not someone misspeaking or being misinterpreted. I'm curious to see what happens when they get to the sand and dunes stages.

 

This won't help Peterhansel's mood. Loeb ought to give some thought to setting up a few security cameras near his car.....

Also note another Peugeot 1-2-3. At this point others must be pinning all their hopes on Peugeot unreliability.

Stage 5: Loeb extends lead with third win (motorsport.com)

 

They're at the highest altitude the Dakar has ever run at. Competitors complaining of headaches, etc, and hitting the oxygen bottle.