Morocco - First stage victory for Despres, Al-Attiyah manages

The former official Peugeot driver scores his first victory with the Mini two-wheel drive buggy during the fourth stage of the Morocco Rally.

Published on 08/10/2018 à 18:51

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Morocco – First stage victory for Despres, Al-Attiyah manages

Cyril Despres pocketed his first victory for the X-Raid team on Monday during the fourth stage of the Rally from Morocco. The Frenchman, associated since this fall to Jean-Paul Cottret, was the fastest on the 342 km route around Erfoud.

1st stage win of #MINIJCWBuggy today! Happy for all @XraidTeam after the last months of hard work @redbullmotors @MINI #xraidteam @Groupe_MFC @BFGoodrichTires #MINI @MarocRally pic.twitter.com/xA8QgBlcEK

— cyrildespres (@cyrildespres) 8th October, 2018

The five-time winner of the Dakar in the motorcycle category took his Mini JCW buggy to first place in the stage, 5’17” ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel (Toyota). The latter maintain a comfortable lead in the general classification with one day to go.

Indeed, Jakub Przygonski and Tom Colsoul (Mini) lost an additional 5’ in the Moroccan dunes. They are now 18’12” behind the leading Toyota Hilux 4×4.

The day ended at the medical center for Austin Jones and Dirk von Zitzewitz (Toyota), who performed two barrels from the front. The crew was shaken but is doing well according to the organization.