The MINI All4 X-raid team is set to cap off a dominant two weeks in South America by handing Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel his tenth Dakar victory (three wins in cars, six on bikes).
The start of the final stage, with only 29 timed kilometres, is not too far away and Peterhansel currently enjoys a lead of almost 43 minutes over his X-raid teammate Nani Roma.
While the MINI All4 has been a familiar face at the top of the leaderboard throughout the event, Peterhansel has been under strong pressure from American Robby Gordon in his Hummer. Sadly for Gordon he had a horrible day yesterday which ended his remote chances of success and saw him lose two hours to Peterhansel.
The second last day managed to catch out a lot of competitors as well and Peterhansel can thank a 20 minute lead going into the day which allowed him to take a slightly conservative approach.
“It was not a stage we were trying to win. We wanted to avoid falling into traps, especially after getting stuck in the sand yesterday,” Peterhansel said after finishing the day unscathed. “It was the toughest stage of the entire Dakar with regard to the dunes. We made a tactical choice to start with lower-than-normal tyre pressure, so we had to be very careful at certain points, but we did well on the dunes.”
There’s a brief video recap from Dakar YouTube channel after the break and we’ll be back with more from MINI assuming victory is the formality it should be.
[Source: MINI motorsport]
2 replies on “MINI on verge of dominant Dakar victory”
This is not part of their failed WRC registration in 2012 is it??
A mini? Maybe the tail lights and badge are mini. Just like the Pajero and tourag’s I spose.