- Five days across the Egyptian desert
Following two events held on the Arabian Peninsula – both won by a MINI ALL4 Racing – the season now is continued on the African continent. Egypt’s Pharaons Rally is the fourth event of the 2015 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup and the last desert rally before the Rallye du Maroc that will be held in October. Currently, three MINI ALL4 Racing crews hold the top positions in the championship standings and all the three are going to contest the event in Egypt. Leader Vladimir Vasilyev is followed by his MINI compatriots Nasser Al-Attiyah in second place and Erik van Loon holding the third position. The fourth MINI ALL4 Racing will be raced by Adam Malysz together with the French co-pilot Xavier Panseri.
On 12th May at El Alamein, not far from the seaport Alexandria, the competitors will start into stage one. The bivouacs will be erected at Tibniya, Farafra and Sitra and on 16th May in Cairo, the teams will cross the finish line. The five stages mainly will feature sand, dunes and Fech Fech. In addition, the navigation also will represent a true challenge.
A mix that suits Nasser Al-Attiyah and his French co-driver Mathieu Baumel particularly well. In the previous two desert rallies, the pairing proved to be virtually invincible and consequently, they also are regarded as Pharaons Rally favourites. The Russian pairing Vladimir Vasilyev and Konstantin Zhiltsov delivered on a particularly consistent level, in the season to date. Instead of focusing on defending their FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup title, the Russians are using the 2015 season as the best possible preparation for the 2016 Dakar. Nonetheless, they have been anything but slow, in the events contested so far, with their VRT-MINI ALL4 Racing.
Van Loon and his compatriot Wouter Rosegaar somersaulted in Qatar and consequently, they were forced into early retirement. In this incident, the MINI ALL4 Racing once again demonstrated its outstanding stability: both driver and co-driver could get out of the car unharmed and will be able to contest the Egyptian event without any problems. Meanwhile, Adam Malysz wasn’t too happy with his performance in Qatar and hopes to be able to make better use of the MINI ALL4 Racing’s potential in the Pharaons Rally.
Upcoming races of the FIA-calendar
2th-28th June 15 Italian Baja
24th-26th July 15 Baja Aragon / Spain
13th-16th August 15 Hungarian Baja
27th-30th August 15 Baja Poland
03rd-09th October 15 Rallye du Maroc
22nd-24th October 15 Baja Portalegre 500 / Portugal
Other races for the MINI ALL4 Racing
19th-23rd May 15 Dakar-Series - Desafío Ruta 40 / Argentina
