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 | Dos Sertões: Spinelli in the lead, Peterhansel and Ximenes hold in top-four.
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With four stages of the "Rally dos Sertões" in Brazil contested, Stéphane Peterhansel / Jean-Paul Cottret in their X-raid Mini All4 Racing still are among the front-runners.
Being second, just 10 seconds behind Guilherme Spinelli (Mitsubishi Racing Lancer), the French pairing is very close to the leader. Meanwhile, the Brazilians Riamburgo Ximenes / Flavio França (X-raid BMW X3CC) follow in fourth position, with their gap to third place amounting to just two minutes. And there still are another six stages to go.
Following the first four stages, the battle for the win apparently turned into a duel between Peterhansel in the Mini All4 and Spinelli. On the past two days, the competitors had to complete two marathon stages and so, the drivers had to make without a service in the bivouac, at the end of day three.
Peterhansel won the third stage, thus temporarily taking the lead. On the following day, however, the Frenchman had to settle for finishing runner-up and consequently, he also dropped back to second in the overall standings - 10 seconds behind the leader, Brazilian Spinelli. Riamburgo Ximenes finished third and fifth, with his BMW X3CC, and currently holds fourth position in the overall ranking.
But the Brazilian rally isn’t the only event X-raid is involved in, this week. On the coming weekend, the Trebur based team also will compete in the Baja Hungary. In that rally, Khalifa Al Mutaiwei from Dubai and his German co-driver Andreas Schulz will take their Mini to its limit to add as many points as possible to their FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup tally.
Currently, they hold second position in the championship, just one point behind Frenchman Jean-Louis Schlesser. The rally will be kicked-off with a prologue on Friday and on the following two days, the entrants will have to race six special stages.
Overall standings after four stages
01) Spinelli / Haddad (BRA) I Mitsubishi Lancer I 09:54:02
02) Peterhansel / Cottret (FRA) I X-Raid Mini All4 I 09:54:12
03) Bibas / Cavassin (BRA) I LR Evoque Rally I 10:34:43
04) Ximenes / França (BRA) I X-raid BMW X3CC I 10:36:51
05) Franciosi / Muniz (BRA) I Sherpa V8 I 10:43:23
2012/08/23 | 19:18 CET | ARTICLE: MR/HS/X-RAID
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