MINI All4 Racing success at Baja Spain

Steve · Jul 22, 2012

Monster Energy X-raid Team wins Baja Spain (X-Raid Team)

Sunday, July 22, 2012

â€¢ StÃ©phane Peterhansel secures the win with his MINI ALL4 Racing

â€¢ Khalifa Al Mutaiwei convinces by taking his MINI ALL4 Racing to 2nd position

What a success for Team X-raid in the Baja Spain! In the first event following the rally break, the Trebur based team secured a fantastic result. French pairing StÃ©phane Peterhansel / Jean-Paul Cottret won the event with their green MINI ALL4 Racing, with Dubaiâ€™s Khalifa Al Mutaiwei and his German co-driver Andreas Schulz taking their MINI All4 Racing to second position. While Frenchman Jean-Louis Schlesser, Al Mutaiweiâ€™s toughest opponent in the battle for the title, had to settle for finishing seventh, in the fourth round of the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup.

In two of the four stages, Peterhansel was faster than his opponents. He won the 5.39-kilometre prologue on Friday and also proved to be the quickest in the second special stage (98.06km) on Saturday. Al Mutaiwei also delivered in great style, in Spain, and shone particularly on Sunday by winning the final special stage. He covered the 202.35 kilometres faster than anybody else, thus working his way up in the overall standings to finish runner-up.

â€œA very, very good result,â€ said X-raid Team Manager Sven Quandt. â€œJust great that Khalifa really went for it, today, and succeeded in passing Gadasin. In the previous special stages we mainly focused on consistency and doing so proved to be the perfect approach. And what can I say about StÃ©phane? He drove another very good rally and demonstrated that our new suspension works well.â€

Meanwhile, a part of the Monster Energy X-raid Team travelled to Argentina, a few days ago. The reason: the DesafÃo Litoral, a rally on the Dakar Series calendar. In this event, Team X-raid will be represented by Nani Roma (ESP) and Michel PÃ©rin (FRA) in the yellow MINI ALL4 Racing as well as two BMW X3 CC vehicles that will be raced by Orlando Terranova (ARG) / Paulo Fiuza (POR) and Boris Garafulic (CHI) / Gilles Picard (FRA). Over the course of the six-day rally that will be started at Iguazu, well-known for its imposing waterfalls, the competitors will have to cover some 1600 kilometres to the finish Resistencia.

Overall Results Baja Spain 2012:

1. S. Peterhansel (FRA)/J.-P. Cottret(FRA) MINI ALL4 Racing â€“ 6h 07m 20s
2. K. Al Mutaiwei (UAE)/A. Schulz (GER) MINI ALL4 Racing â€“ 6h 12m 24s
3. V. Vasilyev (RUS)/V. Yevtyekhov (RUS) G-Force Proto â€“ 6h 18m 10s
4. B. Gadasin (RUS/D. Shchemel (RUS) G-Force Proto - 6h 21m 27s
5. C.Casuneanu (ROU) / Z.Maurilio (ROU) Mitsubishi Racing Lancer - 6h 24m 47s
6. M.Zapletal (CZE) / M.Marton (POL) Offroad Sport BMW X3 CC - 6h 36m 29s
7. J.Schlesser (FRA) / C.Zhiltsov (RUS) Sonangol Schlesser â€“ 6h 41m 11s
8. Y.Kuznetso (RUS) / R.Elagin (RUS) Mitsubishi Pajero Evo â€“ 6h 44m 02s
9. MTraglio / R.Tornabel (ESP) Nissan Pathfinder â€“ 6h 47m 10s
10. J.Dinis (PRT) / L.Tirano (PRT) Mitsubishi Pajero DID â€“ 7h 01m 16s
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Steve · Jul 23, 2012

Peterhansel wins the Baja Spain. (MiniMotoring.com)

24 July 2012

Dakar winner StÃ©phane Peterhansel made a perfect start to the new season and looked on top form as he won the Baja Spain. Team-mate Khalifa Al Mutaiwei finished runner-up.

Dakar expert StÃ©phane Peterhansel usually covers just over 500 kilometres of special stage in a day, not a complete rally. Although the Baja Spain is more of a sprint than a marathon, however, StÃ©phane was still delighted by his overall win at the fourth round of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies. After all, it was his first start in a MINI ALL4 Racing since his victory at the Rally Dakar in January of this year â€“ a successful comeback to kick off preparations for the 2013 Dakar, which will take place in Peru, Argentina and Chile from 5th to 20th January next year.

StÃ©phane had said before the Baja Spain that he could â€œhardly wait to contest another rally in the MINI ALL4 Racing.â€ Right from the outset in Spain it was clear that he was in the mood to win. StÃ©phane raced away from the rest of the field in two of the four stages, setting the foundations for his overall victory with the fastest time over the first timed section. StÃ©phaneâ€™s performance was so impressive that even his team manager seemed lost for words. â€œThere is not a lot you can say about StÃ©phane,â€ said the X-raid team manager Sven Quandt. â€œHe drove another very good rally.â€

Al Mutaiwei completes one-two.

Second place went to StÃ©phaneâ€™s team-mate Khalifa Al Mutaiwei, who was also at the wheel of a MINI ALL4 Racing. Khalifa won the special stage on the final day of the Baja Spain to move into second place overall and complete a one-two for the X-raid team in Spain. At the same time Khalifa cut the overall lead of Frenchman Jean-Louis Schlesser, who finished seventh in Spain, down to just one point while building a comfortable cushion over Qatarâ€™s Nasser Al-Attiyah in third place overall. â€œA very, very good result for us. We focused on consistency and doing so proved to be a perfect approach,â€ said Quandt, who can now concentrate fully on the other half of his team, which is in action in South America.

Nani Roma is just one of those lining up in a MINI ALL4 Racing at the DesafÃo Litoral am Start, which forms part of the Dakar Series and is held in the border region between Argentina and Brazil from 23rd to 28th July when the rally covers a distance of roughly 1.600 kilometres between Iguazu in Brazil to Resistencia in Argentina. All of this in just six days of competition when Nani and company will encounter a spectacular landscape with several rivers, tropical forests, huge waterfalls and red earth on their way towards the finish line in Argentina.

You can find updates from the DesafÃo Litoral at Twitter.com/MINImotorsport and Facebook.com/MINImotorsport.
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