Defending champions Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel drove an X-raid Mini All4 Racing to second place in the 2016 Dakar Rally behind the winning Peugeot of Stephane Peterhansel and Jean Paul Cottret.
The El Niño-plagued Dakar ended in Rosario, Argentina, on January 16. The challenging 13-stage rally, run in Argentina and Bolivia, was made even more daunting this year by the combination of torrential downpours, flooding, and extreme heat. Several stages had to be canceled or shortened because of the conditions.
Mikka Hirvonen and his co-driver Michel Périn in another X-raid Mini finished fourth behind the Toyota of Giniel de Villiers and Dirk Von Sitzewitz. WRC rally ace Hirvonen won the penultimate stage of the rally, his first stage win in his first-ever Dakar. One additional Mini of the twelve entered in the event finished in the top ten; Nani Roma and Alex Haro were sixth, recovering from an hour spent in a mud hole on the second day of the event.
The 2016 win, the first for Peugeot since 1990 when the Dakar was still run in Africa, broke Mini’s five year win streak. Peugeot’s Sebastien Loeb led until he was set back by a crash on stage eight. Peterhansel, who took the lead at that point; built a margin of over an hour that allowed him to be conservative in the final stages. He finished 35 minutes ahead of Al-Attiyah.
X-raid team manager Sven Quandt said, “I’m proud of our crews and our mechanics who never gave up although many already had written us off, in the first week. But we battled our way back up. In the second week, the MINI ALL4 Racing could make full use of its strengths and advantages. I have to congratulate Nasser who once again made it to the very top, with his pace. Mikko delivered in sensational style. To make so few mistakes in your first Dakar is truly amazing. It was an extremely grueling Dakar – not only for the drivers but for the entire team. The rain in the first week, the extreme altitude and the enormous heat in the second represented an extreme strain but was mastered in fantastic style by everybody.” —Brian S, Morgan
