– Hirvonen, Al-Rajhi, Menzies and Terranova are the spearheads
– Altitude will be a true challenge
The Dakar Rally is the most gruelling cross-country event in the world and in the coming edition, the enormous heights in Bolivia and the difficult navigation will take drivers and navigators to their limits. Eight pairings will cross the starting line Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, for X-raid. Several drivers of the line-up have been collaborating with X-raid for quite a while others are going to make their Dakar debut with a 4×4, this time.
This year X-raid relies on younger drivers, to build a competitive squad for the future. In addition, the four top drivers come from four completely different parts of the world: Finland’s Mikko Hirvonen, Yazeed Al-Rajhi from Saudi Arabia, US-American Bryce Menzies and Argentinean Orlando Terranova.
It will be the second Dakar for Mikko Hirvonen. He already impressed in his debut appearance by finishing fourth, last year. Together with his French co-driver Michel Périn he gathered more cross-country rallying experience, in the past months and celebrated his maiden win in the sport in the Hungarian Baja.
“I’m really looking forward to my second Dakar,