Dakar SS5 X-Raid: Four Mini in the top 10

Miko Hirvonen and Michel Périn © DR

– Difficult task for the navigators on the way to Oruro
– Special stage shortened due to adverse weather conditions
 
For Team X-raid, the fifth stage of the 2017 Dakar didn’t run exactly positive. In particular, some of the pairings had major problems with the difficult navigation. Orlando Terranova (ARG) and Andreas Schulz (GER) finished eighth in the shortened stage, with their MINI John Cooper Works Rally.

Due to the adverse weather conditions around Oruro, the organisers stopped the race action with 219 kilometres of the special stage contested. MINI All4 Racing pairing Kuba Przygonski (POL) and Tom Colsoul (BEL) came ninth. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA) / Timo Gottschalk (GER) (MINI John Cooper Works Rally) and Boris Garafulic (CHI) / Filipe Palmeiro (POR), in a MINI ALL4 Racing, finished 13th and 14th, right ahead of Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) / Michel Périn (FRA) in another MINI John Cooper Works Rally who unfortunately lost a lot of time due to navigation problems.
 
Today’s stage had it all: at the beginning, the field drove up into the mountains, from there into a riverbed and afterwards, dunes were waiting for the competitors. But the riverbed proved to be particularly treacherous and nearly all the competitors lost their way, in this section. “We lost all the time we lost while looking for the right track,

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