• Stéphane Peterhansel with the MINI ALL4 Racing in Brazil
• Khalifa Al Mutaiwei battling it out for points in Hungary
In the forthcoming two weeks, X-raid will be racing on two continents. A part of the Trebur based team already travelled to Brazil for the Rally dos Sertões (18th to 28th August) that will be started on Saturday. And about a week later, the other half of the team will hit the road to Hungary for the Baja Hungary (24th to 26th August, 2012), the fifth round of the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup.
In the Brazilian event, X-raid will be represented by two vehicles: following their win in the Baja Spain, Stéphane Peterhansel and his Co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret are going to try to secure another win for the Monster Energy X-raid Team, with their MINI ALL4 Racing. While local champions Riamburgo Ximenes and Flavio França will race the event with a BMW X3 CC. The rally will be kicked off on 18th August by a prologue in São Luis and afterwards, the 10 stages of the event will take the competitors across Brazil to Fortaleza. Altogether, the squads will have to cover 4,846 kilometres, with the special-stage mileage adding up to 2,296 kilometres. The Dos Sertões is well-known for its demanding and varied route through the Brazilian jungle, sand sections and across the mountains.
Meanwhile, Khalifa Al Mutaiwei from Dubai and his German navigator Andreas Schulz will contest the Baja Hungary, with their MINI ALL4 Racing, to add as many points as possible to their World Cup tally. Prior to the event, Al Mutaiwei’s gap to World Cup leader Jean-Louis Schlesser amounts to just four points. The Baja begins with a 5.5-kilometre Superspeciale on Friday. On the following day, the drivers will race four special stages – two of with a mileage of 66 and the other two of 85 kilometres. And the Sunday action comprises one 66-kilometre and one 85-kilometre special stage.
