MOTOR SPORT
Rally dos Sertoes, August 10-19, 2011
For immediate release
Sunday, August 21st, 2011
X-RAID AND NOBRE SECURE SECOND
PLACE IN BRAZIL’S RALLY DOS SERTOES
– Paulo Nobre wins six of 10 stages in BMW X3 CC
– Stone damage to tyre ruins chance of overall victory
FORTALEZA (Brazil): The Brazilian-Portuguese duo of Paulo Nobre and Filipe Palmeiro reached the finish of the gruelling Rally dos Sertoes in second place in their X-raid BMW X3 CC, after 10 days of punishing stages and gruelling heat on a challenging route through Brazil.
The event was won by the Brazilian duo of Guilherme Spinelli and Youssef Haddad.
Nobre and Palmeiro won six of the 10 special stages and were the most successful crew on the entire rally. However, a large stone destroyed their dreams of securing outright victory on the second special stage.
Their BMW X3 CC hit the obstacle at full speed and the impact demolished a front wheel and damaged a brake. The duo had to complete the remaining 100 kilometres of the stage with only three brakes and lost valuable time to eventual winner Spinelli.
They recovered quickly and set the fastest time on the next stage. Over the following days, they set five further fastest times and leapt back up the overall rankings to claim second after stage six. The gap to Spinelli was too much to claw back, however, and the team decided against taking unnecessary risks to preserve the runner-up spot.
"Filipe and Paulo were doing very well and were able to win at least six stages,” said X-raid team boss Sven Quandt. “Without the incident with the stone on the second day, their overall victory was almost certain.
"The organisers of the Rally dos Sertoes put on a challenging route, and we also had to contend with 35 degree outside temperatures. The temperatures in the car were even greater. "
Ends
Further information and photos are available at www.x-raid.de or contact Stefanie Szlapka or Thomas Quandt at X-raid GmbH, Tel: + 49 (0) 6147 204 670, E-mail: s.szlapka@x-raid.de or t.quandt@x-raid.de.