domingo, 22 de julho de 2018

Baja Aragon: Kuba Przygonski comes second in his MINI JCW Rally


Two special-stage wins for the Pole 

Great comeback of Kuba Przygonski

With their MINI John Cooper Works Rally, Jakub ‚Kuba‘ Przygonski (POL) and Tom Colsoul (BEL) finished second behind Russia’s Vladimir Vasilyev in the Baja Aragon, the seventh FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup round. With this result they defended their lead in the FIA World Cup standings.

Przygonski and Colsoul secured fourth place in the prologue, thus achieving a good initial position for the things to come. The Saturday, however, was a day of mixed emotions for the MINI JCW Rally paring. In the second special stage they lost a lot of time due to two damaged tyres and had to settle for finishing sixth. But SS3, held on Saturday afternoon, ran far better for Przygonski / Colsoul: they crossed the finish line as stage winners, thus working their way back up to fourth place in the overall standings.

On Sunday, Przygonski tied in with his good Saturday-afternoon performance to also win the fourth special stage and finish second in the Baja Aragon. In the end, he was just one minute slower that the winner.

“Today wasn’t easy as it was wet and muddy,” revealed Przygonski. “After the bad luck we had to cope with yesterday we really went for it today. An approach that paid off as we finished second, in the end, and even came close to overtaking Vasilyev.” 

In the FIA World Cup, Przygonski defended his lead with a total of 237 points on his tally, followed by Colsoul Vasilyev (185 points) and Martin Prokop (Martin Prokop 175) in second and third positions respectively. Up to the end of the season, a maximum of 150 points still can be scored.

In the Hungarian Baja, the next event on the FIA World Cup calendar, Przygonski once again will give his very best.

In the Silk Way Rally that was started yesterday and will be finished on Friday, Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk currently hold second position – while Nani Roma had to retire from the stage for health reasons but was back today and delivered by finishing fourth in the stage.

Baja Aragon - Overall Result

1. V. Vasilyev (RUS) / K. Zhiltsov (RUS) MINI ALL4 Racing - 6h 37m 50s
2. J. Przygonski (POL) / T. Colsoul (BEL) MINI John Cooper Works Rally – 6h 38m 42s
 3. M. Prokop (CZE) / J. Tomanek (CZE) Ford – 6h 39m 12s
4. A. Domzala (POL) / M. Marton (POL) Toyota – 6h 47m 02s
5. R. Porém (POR) / N. da Silva (POR) Ford – 6h 50m 06s