• Truly challenging start into the rally in Morocco
After two days of the OiLibya Rally of Morocco, the Argentinean/Portuguese pairing Orlando Terranova / Paulo Fiúza holds the overall lead, with their MINI ALL4 Racing of the Monster Energy X-raid Team. As early as on day one the competitors had to cope with the first dune fields. Terranova and Fiúza remained unimpressed and won the stage with a lead of nearly eight minutes over second-placed Bernhard Ten-Brinke. So, they were the first to start into the second stage that was challenging both technically and when it came to the navigation – an advantage for the competition that could follow Terranova’s trail. In addition, he suffered a puncture in the closing stages but succeeded in making it to the finish, nevertheless. Despite the difficulties, the Argentinean finished runner-up, just 48 seconds behind the stage winner.
For Chile’s Boris Garafulic and his French co-driver Gilles Picard, the rally also took a positive course, so far. They and their MINI ALL4 Racing had no problems in the sand and finished sixth – and fourth on day two. Consequently, they also hold fourth position in the overall standings. The other X-raid drivers, however, encountered a difficult start into the event. They got stuck or lost in the difficult dunes. The Argentineans Federico Villagra and Jorge Perez Companc, for instance, had to settle for finishing 36th in stage one. On the second day, however, they made perfect use of their WRC experience and secured the very fine third place.
The Russians Vladimir Vasilyev and Vitaly Yevtyekhov finished 10th and 5th respectively. They hold ninth position in the overall standings, just one minute behind seventh place. Adrian Yacopini (ARG) and Marco Scopinaro (ARG) clinched the fine ninth position on day one but today they encountered several problems and finished 21st. While the German pairing Stephan Schott / Holm Schmidt came 22nd and 15th respectively, in the first two stages.
“We are rather happy,” said X-raid Team Manager Sven Quandt. “The first stage was really difficult and demanding. The dunes were extremely challenging and took the drivers to their very limits. Now, after two days, I’m particularly delighted with the strong team result. But tomorrow it’s back to the sand.”
Result stage 2
1st B. Ten-Brinke (NLD) / M. Baumel (FRA) Ford - 2h 41m 49s
2nd O. Terranova (ARG) / P. Fiúza (POR) MINI ALL4 Racing – 2h 42m 37s
3rd F. Villagra (ARG) / J. Companc (ARG) MINI ALL4 Racing – 2h 48m 09s
4th B. Garafulic (CHI) / G. Picard (FRA) MINI ALL4 Racing – 2h 49m 21s
5th V. Vasilyev (RUS) / V. Yevtyekhov (RUS) MINI ALL4 Racing – 2h 49m 41s
… 15th S. Schott (GER) / H. Schmidt (GER) MINI ALL4 Racing - 3h 05m 25s
… 21st A. Yacopini (ARG) / M. Scopinaro (ARG) BMW X3 CC – 3h 12m 19 ...
Overall standings after two days:
1st O. Terranova (ARG) / P. Fiúza (POR) MINI ALL4 Racing – 5h 04m 37s
2nd B. Ten-Brinke (NLD) / M. Baumel (FRA) Ford - 5h 12m 18s
3rd P. Sireyjol (FRA) / F. Beguin (BEL) Buggy – 5h 21m 39s
4th B. Garafulic (CHI) / G. Picard (FRA) MINI ALL4 Racing – 5h 24m 05s
… 9th V. Vasilyev (RUS) / V. Yevtyekhov (RUS) MINI ALL4 Racing – 5h 39m 58s
… 12th A. Yacopini (ARG) / M. Scopinaro (ARG) BMW X3 CC – 6h 01m 34s
… 20th S. Schott (GER) / H. Schmidt (GER) MINI ALL4 Racing - 6h 25m 28s
... 22nd F. Villagra (ARG) / J. Companc (ARG) MINI ALL4 Racing – 6h 50m 17s
