· Impressive sixth place for Hirvonen
At the end of stage 12, taking the field to San Juan, the MINI John Cooper Works Rally pairing Orlando ‘Orly’ Terranova / Bernardo ‘Ronnie’ Graue (both ARG) was delighted with having finished fourth. On the day after their rollover, Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) and Andreas Schulz (GER) in their MINI John Cooper Works Buggy also did far better by securing sixth place, followed by Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL) and Tom Colsoul (BEL) who took their MINI JCW Rally to a safe eighth place. Boris Garafulic (CHI) and Filipe Palmeiro (POR) in another MINI JCW Rally came 13th.
In the early stages of today’s race action Terranova and Graue even held the lead. “Then, I unfortunately made a wrong decision,” admitted the Argentinean. “One of our tyres had a slow puncture and instead of changing it I opted for re-inflating it. But a short time later we had to stop to change it nevertheless. This mistake cost us some five minutes and that was our gap to the leaders, at the end of the day.”
“It was an exhausting day for us,” said Hirvonen. “Due to our rollover in yesterday’s stage we arrived in the bivouac very late. Consequently, I could sleep for just 2.5 hours and today’s special stage was really long. But things went really well for us. The buggy handled just fantastically. Unfortunately, we were hampered by another car for about 100 kilometres what cost us several minutes.”
“The day was long and the navigation once again demanding,” said Przygonski. “At the beginning the special stage featured WRC-like sections and driving there was really big fun. But then we went off in a corner. Fortunately we touched down between rocks and could return onto the track without any damages. Now we have to complete the final two stages without making any mistakes.”
Tomorrow, the penultimate stage of the 2018 Dakar already will end at Cordoba, the venue of the finish. On the day after tomorrow, the final special stage will be contested on a loop around the Argentinean city. But tomorrow, before this final stage, the field will have to cover a total of 929 kilometres, with the special-stage mileage amounting to 369 kilometres. The stage will begin in dunes and sand to then be continued on routes that are known from the Argentinean WRC round.
Dakar 2018 result SS12
1. N. Al-Attiyah (QAT) / M. Baumel (FRA) Toyota – 5h 49m 57s
2. S. Peterhansel (FRA) / J.-P. Cottret (FRA) Peugeot – 5h 52m 00s
3. G. de Villiers (RSA) / D. von Zitzewitz (GER) Toyota – 5h 54m 30s
4. O. Terranova (ARG) / R. Graue (ARG) MINI JCW Rally – 5h 55m 53s
5. B. Ten Brinke (NDL) / M. Périn (FRA) Toyota – 5h 57m 50s
6. M. Hirvonen (FIN) / A. Schulz (GER) MINI JCW Buggy – 6h 02m 12s
... 8. J. Przygonski (POL) / T. Colsoul (BEL) MINI JCW Rally – 6h 04m 48s
... 14. B. Garafulic (CHI) / F. Palmeiro (POR) MINI JCW Rally – 6h 31m 26s
Dakar 2018 overall standings after SS12
1. C. Sainz (ESP) / L. Cruz (ESP) Peugeot – 42h 24m 31s
2. S. Peterhansel (FRA) / J.-P. Cottret (FRA) Peugeot – 43h 09m 12s
3. N. Al-Attiyah (QAT) / M. Baumel (FRA) Toyota – 43h 30m 26s
4. B. Ten Brinke (NDL) / M. Périn (FRA) Toyota – 43h 41m 52s
5. G. de Villiers (RSA) / D. von Zitzewitz (GER) Toyota – 43h 51m 02s
6. J. Przygonski (POL) / T. Colsoul (BEL) MINI JCW Rally – 45h 15m 33s
... 15. B. Garafulic (CHI) / F. Palmeiro (POR) MINI JCW Rally – 55h 08m 49s
... 19. M. Hirvonen (FIN) / A. Schulz (GER) MINI JCW Buggy – 58h 40m 24s
20. O. Terranova (ARG) / R. Graue (ARG) MINI JCW Rally – 60h 44m 27s
