• Three MINI ALL4 Racing vehicles to contest the Baja Portalegre
Nine FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup rounds have been contested and the battle for the titles has been taken down to the season finale, Portugal’s Baja Portalegre. With 216 points on their tally, Russian pairing Vladimir Vasilyev / Konstantin Zhiltsov and their MINI ALL4 racing travel to Portugal as World Cup leaders. 20 points behind Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah follows in second position. 30 points will be awarded in the Baja Portalegre (31st October to 01st November, 2014) and so, the spectators may look forward to a close and hard-fought season finale. In addition, the two Portuguese pairings Filipe Campos / Joana Sotto-Mayor and Ricardo Porém / Manuel Porém also will contest the event with a MINI ALL4 Racing.
With 20 points, Vasilyev holds a rather comfortable lead in the championship. For the Russian, finishing fourth in the Baja Portalegre will be enough for securing the title – no matter what result Al-Attiyah will achieve. In addition to being the World Cup season finale, the Baja Portalegre also represents the final round of the Portuguese Off Road Championship. There, Ricardo Porém is the championship leader, with an 11-point lead over his toughest rival. And the pairing Campos / Sotto-Mayor already can look back on successful appearances in a MINI ALL4 Racing three years ago.
The Baja Portalegre will be started at Friday with a 5.5-kilometre prologue. Saturday comprises two special stages with distances of 200.41 and 212.61 kilometres. Both the prologue and the special stages will be contested around the city of Portalegre, not far from the Spanish border.
“Now it counts,” says Vasilyev. “Every mistake can be the one which decides the World Cup. While Nasser Al-Attiyah has to push to try to close the gap to us, we can choose a more conservative and less risky approach. Nonetheless, we have to stay focused.”
“With 20 points, Vladimir’s lead is rather comfortable,” says X-raid Team Manager Sven Quandt. “Therefore, he can avoid taking any unnecessary risks. We know his competitiveness and finishing fourth should be feasible, for him. On the other hand, the impact of minor mistakes is far bigger in such a short Baja than in the long desert events. Therefore, he must be careful and fully focused throughout the event.”
