The Hanhart team with “Mr. Consistency” Stephan Schott, his co-driver Paul Fiúza and their X-Raid MINI All4Racing took a legit 15th position at this year’s Rally Dakar in South America. Thus, Schott has already completed the most important off-road race worldwide for the eighth time! In the past years, Schott has always competed together with co-driver Holm Schmidt. This time, Schmidt was too busy in his job, that he was unfortunately unable to participate. However, Paul Fiúza from Portugal has mastered his job as a co-driver optimally. He helped Schott to push his limits further, not least because he had already finished the Dakar two times with the fifth position and thus knows the rally inside out.
It was an extremely exhausting competition over two weeks, which demanded a lot of man and machine. It went from Paraguay to Argentina over Bolivia and back to Argentina, through dusty dry passages, deep mud and water holes, high sand dunes, dried riverbeds with pointed stones and stretches of up to 5000 meters height. The entire route amounted almost 9,000 kilometers, whereof about 4,000 kilometers were assessed in time. Unfortunately, the stages 6 and 9 had to be canceled due to extremely bad weather and landslides. The hot temperatures of almost 50° degrees were particularly hard for the drivers.
The first stages started very well. Due to Schott’s constant driving and Fiúzas excellent support, the Hanhart team could be ranked 16th in the overall evaluation after the fourth stage. While other competitors drove too fast on many routes and therefore made gross mistakes, Schott drove quietly and almost without problems across the finishing lines of the first stages. The team was thrown back a little because of bad weather conditions on the fifth stage. That is why it had to be shortened and the next stage even had to be canceled! After this, the team Hanhart started to catch up, so that it took an impressive 15th position after the twelfth and final stage. Schott himself said after stage 10: “[…] river beds, stones, camel grass, sandy passages, […]. I like such a mix and this is why we got through well. Especially Paulo has done a very good job today.”
We congratulate the two pilots on this great performance and wish them a solemn welcome at home as well as a relaxing time after the rally!
Find more info and photos on the Hanhart Facebook page.