The story of the 2014 Dakar was one of complete domination of the event by the MINI team. A delighted Nani Roma led his MINI ALL4 Racing car home ahead of teammates Stephane Peterhansel and Nasser Al-Attiyah at the final stage in Valparaiso, Chile.
A clean sweep to the podium it may have been, but suggestions of team orders have dampened the outright victory. Associated Press (AP) reports that 11 times winner and defending champion Peterhansel bowed to team orders on the race's shortest stage - 157 kilometres - and even stopped, while having a 26 seconds lead, to enable the Spaniard to finish first.
"The MINI ALL4 racing is a brilliant car and was extremely reliable and quick throughout the whole rally," said Roma. The racer is based on the MINI John Cooper Works Countryman and a total of eleven MINIs were entered into the event. In the end, seven of the MINIs, including the Monster Energy X-Raid Team, made it home in the top-ten after 9,374 torturous kilometres.
Originally known as the Paris-Dakar, the event started back in 1978, but was moved to South America in 2009 amid security fears. Nowadays, the gruelling rally takes in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.
Anything else?
As they say, though, timing is everything. And MINI will be delighted with the victory. Especially as there's a new third-generation car launching shortly. We're driving it next week...