Dakar 2018 // SS3: More bad luck for the X-raid Team
01/09/2018
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Nani Roma of of the race due to an accident.
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Dakar stays in San Juan de Marcona for a loop.
Today, after two days at Pisco, the Dakar participants hit the road to San Juan de Marcona. In the 296-kilometre special stage, the MINI John Cooper Works Rally pairing Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL) / Tom Colsoul (BEL) secured ninth place, two positions ahead of Boris Garafulic (CHI) and Filipe Palmeiro (POR) in a second MINI JCW Rally. Orlando Terranova / Bernardo ‘Ronnie’ Graue (both ARG) came 16th. While Joan ‘Nani’ Roma and Alex Haro (both ESP) had an accident at the very end of the stage and were forced into retirement.
By finishing ninth in another difficult stage, Przygonski secured 11th position in the overall standings. “The sun was shining virtually vertically from the sky and therefore, seeing anything in the dunes was nearly impossible,” revealed the young Pole. “Furthermore, we were stopped by a puncture but changing the tyre did not take us a lot of time. Later we hit a rock in a riverbed but this incident had no consequences.”
Following yesterday’s bad luck – the collision with their team-mates – Boris Garafulic (CHI) and Filipe Palmeiro (POR) had a clearly better day, today. “We completed the stage without encountering any problems,” said the Chilean. Unfortunately we had to witness when we reached the finish that Nani had an accident.” Meanwhile, Terranova and Graue had anything but a good day. “We got lost several times and in addition we had to change a damaged tyre,” Terranova said annoyed.
Today’s schedule of Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) and Andreas Schulz (GER) featured the topic ”digging”. The pairing skidded sideways down a dune and got heavily stuck. “We could not move forward, backward or sideways. It took us ages to get the spare tyres under the car and get going again,” said the Finn. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA) and Timo Gottschalk (GER) in the MINI John Cooper Works Buggy stopped to help their team-mates. “Afterwards, we completed the rest of the stage together.” Yazeed Al-Rajhi was ranked 30th, Hirvonen 39th.
Meanwhile, Roma’s 2018 Dakar Rally came to a sudden and early end. The two-time Dakar winner rolled in the closing stages in the dunes. He succeeded in making it to the finish, with his MINI JCW Rally but there, the doctors decided that he should be flown to a hospital in Lima for a check-up. As he did not finish the liaison he was disqualified.
Tomorrow, the teams will stay in the bivouac at San Juan de Marcona. A 114-kilometre liaison will be followed by a 330-kilometre special stage. After the start at the Pacific coast, the stage takes the crews back to the dunes.
Dakar 2018 Result SS3
1. N. Al-Attiyah (QAT) / M. Baumel (FRA) Toyota – 3h 09m 08s
2. S. Peterhansel (FRA) / J.-P. Cottret (FRA) Peugeot – 3h 13m 13s
3. C. Sainz (ESP) / L. Cruz (ESP) Peugeot – 3h 15m 15s
4. C. Despres (FRA) / D. Castera (FRA) Peugeot – 3h 16m 51s
5. S. Loeb (FRA) / D. Elena (MCO) Peugeot – 3h 17m 42s
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9. J. Przygonski (POL) / T. Colsoul (BEL) MINI JCW Rally – 3h 31m 50s
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14. B. Garafulic (CHI) / F. Palmeiro (POR) MINI JCW Rally – 3h 34m 07s
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16. O. Terranova (ARG) / R. Graue (ARG) MINI JCW Rally – 3h 36m 09s
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30. Y. Al-Rajhi (KSA) / T. Gottschalk (GER) ) MINI JCW Buggy – 4h 40m 23s
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39. M. Hirvonen (FIN) / A. Schulz (Ger) MINI JCW Buggy – 5h 09m 12s
Dakar 2018 Overall result after SS3
1. S. Peterhansel (FRA) / J.-P. Cottret (FRA) Peugeot – 6h 34m 58s
2. C. Despres (FRA) / D. Castera (FRA) – Peugeot – 6h 38m 09s
3. N. Al-Attiyah (QAT) / M. Baumel (FRA) Toyota – 6h 42m 41s
4. S. Loeb (FRA) / D. Elena (MCO) Peugeot – 6h 45m 09s
5. G. de Villiers (RSA) / D. von Zitzewitz (GER) Toyota – 6h 46m 21s
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8. O. Terranova (ARG) / R. Graue (ARG) MINI JCW Rally – 7h 10m 17s
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12. J. Przygonski (POL) / T. Colsoul (BEL) MINI JCW Rally – 7h 19m 11s
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20. M. Hirvonen (FIN) / A. Schulz (GER) MINI JCW Buggy – 8h 43m 20s
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48. Y. Al-Rajhi (KSA) / T. Gottschalk (GER) MINI JCW Buggy – 15h 04m 08s
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50. B. Garafulic (CHI) / F. Palmeiro (POR) MINI JCW Rally – 18h 41m 55s
