Peterhansel clinches 10th Dakar win with MINI in 2012

18 January 2012

Peterhansel clinches 10th Dakar win with MINI in 2012

Words by Christopher Kho | Photos courtesy of the Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.)

After 14 stages covering 8,377 gruelling kilometers over gravel, mud, and sand in three different South American countries, Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel in his X-raid MINI Countryman ALL4 Racing emerged victorious and took his 10th overall Dakar rally win in Lima, Peru. With this win, Peterhansel indeed is the master of the Dakar after winning it six times on a bike (1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1998) and now four times on a car (2004, 2005, 2007, and 2012). He is joined on the podium in second place by teammate Joan “Nani” Roma from Spain in the sister MINI ALL4 making it a one-two finish, while Giniel de Villiers in the South African-built Imperial Toyota Hilux V8 surprised all with a third place finish on the pick-up's debut.

Back in January 1, 2012, 443 bikes, quads, cars, and trucks took off from the starting line at the coast of Mar del Plata in Argentina for the 33rd running of the Dakar rally. 15 days later, only 249 of those who started made it to the finish line in Lima, earning the Dakar the title as the toughest off-road race in the world.

Run to the Finish

Undeniably, Robby Gordon and defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah in their Hummer H3's were X-raid's closest rivals in the rally. Al-Attiyah pushed from the start but encountered numerous technical problems during the rally and eventually forcing the Qatari to retire on stage 9. Gordon, on the other hand, fought Peterhansel all the way to the penultimate stage until the Californian made a series of costly mistakes which saw him tumble down the standings, eventually finishing in fifth and more than 2 hours behind the Frenchman.

Former Dakar winner Giniel de Villers drove a calm and consistent race, putting his Imperial Toyota Hilux V8 on third spot on the podium. This is a spectacular victory for entire team considering that the production-based Toyota is relatively underdeveloped compared to the MINI's and H3's and is on its first Dakar outing.

With five MINI Countryman ALL4 Racing machines in this year's entry list, the X-raid team from Germany wasn't going to go home with anything less than a first place finish. Besides the overall Dakar victory for Stéphane Peterhansel, the squad also took 8 stage wins out of the 14. In the end, Roma finished 41 minutes behind Peterhansel in third, while Lenoid Novitskiy crossed the line in fourth, Ricardo Leal Dos Santos in eighth, and Krzysztof Holowczyc making it a top 10 finish.

In addition to the big teams, Carlos Sousa had a great performance in the Great Wall Haval SUV and ended up in seventh.