P90165769-highRes

Official Press Release:

Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel (QT/FR) in their MINI ALL4 Racing car have won the prestigious Rally Morocco, the ninth round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. The X-raid drivers have shown a dominant performance over six legs, on which the participants covered a total of 1991 kilometres. 1441 of them in special stages. Al-Attiyah/Baumel won three stages and crossed the finish line in the capital of Marrakesh ahead of Monster Energy X-raid driver Orlando Terranova/Rolando Graue (AR/AR).

“It’s a great feeling to win here in Morocco,” Al-Attiyah said at the finish in the capital of Marrakesh. “It was a tough challenge, a lot of difficult sandy parts in the desert, where you could get stuck easily. Some sections were a lot trickier than I expected. But my co-driver Mathieu did a great job as always, he’s a great navigator, who always finds the best route. The MINI ALL4 Racing was again very reliable and nice to drive. I love it and I’m now looking forward to the next big challenge, the 2015 Dakar Rally.”

The Rally Morocco, which was held for the 25th time this year, is regarded as a perfect dress rehearsal for the Dakar Rally, which will be held in South America in January. Not only from a driver’s but also from a technical point of view. The route’s of both events are quite similar: Huge sandy dunes with very fine sand and sections on narrow mountain roads.

“I learned a lot during this week, it was definitely a good preparation for the Dakar Rally,” Orlando Terranova said. “I had a good battle with Nasser and it’s a great result for MINI. It shows that we are on a good way for the Dakar.”

Erik van Loon/Wouter Rosegaar (NL/NL) finished the Rally Morocco in 3rd place, scoring their best result of the season so far. Vladimir Vasilyev/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RU/RU) crossed the finish line in 4th position, defending their lead in the World Cup classification.  The next and final round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies will be the Baja Portugal (30 October – 02 November).