On the penultimate stage of the Dakar 2024 to Yanbu, Vaidotas Zala and Paulo Fiuza in the MINI JCW Rally Plus were delighted with eighth place. Krzysztof Holowczyc and Lukasz Kurzeja finished the day in 16th place in the MINI JCW Rally Plus, while the women’s duo Annett Quandt and Annie Seel in the X-raid 1000R Turbo Side-by-Side finished 20th in the Challenger classification. In the overall standings they are in 19th position shortly before the end of the Dakar.
After the bad luck of the past few days, things went according to plan for Zala and Fiuza today. The pair worked their way up the timesheets from checkpoint to checkpoint in the MINI JCW Rally Plus. After the 420 kilometres, they crossed the finish line in eighth position.
The final 174 kilometres of the Dakar 2024 are on the agenda tomorrow. These will mainly take the participants over sandy tracks and stony passages. There will then be time to celebrate at the finish.
Quotes from the drivers
Vaidotas Zala (#214 MINI JCW Rally Plus):
“Today was a good day. Unfortunately, we spent it completely in the dust again while trying to overtake the others. Surprisingly, we didn’t suffer any tyre damage. We weren’t too fast, but we were consistent. Tomorrow we have a good starting position and can attack again.”
Annett Quandt (#321 X-raid 1000R Turbo):
“We’ve slowly got used to the tough stages. It was extremely rocky and we drove carefully. Nevertheless, we had a flat tyre. But all in all it was a good day. The navigation was not so easy. Once we drove into a parallel valley, but were still able to log the waypoint. You can see how close together everything was. For the last hour we had to cycle through the mountains in the dark. But we’re used to that by now.”
Dakar 2024 – result SS11 (Ultimate-class)
1. G. Chicherit / A. Winocq – Toyota – 4h 43m 00s
2. G. de Mevius / X. Panseri – Toyota – 4h 48m 32s
3. C. Sainz / L. Cruz – Audi – 4h 48m 35s
4. M. Ekström / E.Bergkvist – Audi – 4h 52m 46s
5. S. Variawa / F. Cazalet – Toyota – 4h 55m 37s
…
8. V. Zala / P. Fiuza – MINI JCW Rally Plus – 4h 58m 38s
…
16. K. Holowczyc / L. Kurzeja – MINI JCW Rally Plus – 5h 10m 38s
Overall standings (Ultimate-class)
1. C. Sainz / L. Cruz – Audi – 46h 23m 47s
2. G. de Mevius / X. Panseri – Toyota – 47h 50m 53s
3. S. Loeb / F. Lurquin – Prodrive – 47h 58m 49s
4. G. Chicherit / A. Winocq – Toyota – 48h 06m 07s
5. M. Prokop / V. Chytka – Ford – 48h 41m 34s
…
47. K. Holowczyc / L. Kurzeja – MINI JCW Rally Plus – 135h 24m 27s
…
54. V. Zala / P. Fiuza – MINI JCW Rally Plus – 156h 38m 01s
Dakar 2024 result SS11 (Challenger-class)
1. N. Cavigliasso / V. Pertegarini – Taurus – 5h 19m 13s
2. M. Gastaldi / C. Sachs – Taurus – 5h 25m 31s
3. S. Alsaif / N. Alkuwari – OT3 – 5h 28m 41s
4. C. Gutierrez / P. Moreno – Taurus – 5h 33m 20s
5. R. Baciuska / O. Vidal – Can-Am – 5h 34m 58s
…
20. A. Quandt / A. Seel – X-raid 1000R Turbo – 6h 25m 34
Overall standings (Challenger-class)
1. M. Guthrie / K. Walch – Taurus – 51h 38m 06s
2. C. Gutierrez / P. Moreno – Taurus – 52h 03m 13s
3. R. Baciuska / O. Vidal – Can-Am – 52h 59m 01s
4. F. Lopez / J. Latrach – Can-Am – 53h 02m 41s
5. A. Jones / G. Gugelmin – Can-Am – 53h 40m 55s
…
19. A. Quandt / A. Seel – X-raid 1000R Turbo – 74h 02m 01s
