Nasser Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Mathieu Baumel in the Qatar Rally Team Mini All4 Racing have won the 2015 edition of the Dakar Rally. It was the fourth consecutive Dakar win for Mini. Al-Attiyah finished third on the final rain-shortened stage in Argentina, which ended at the first control point. Robbie Gordon won the stage in his Hummer.
Al-Attiyah and Baumel dominated the event, winning five of the rally’s thirteen stages and leading most of the way. They finished 35 minutes ahead of second-place Giniel de Villiers and Dirk Von Zitzewitz in a Toyota Hilux. Krzysztof Holowczyc and Xavier Panseri finished third in a Monster Energy Mini.
Two more X-Raid Minis rounded out the top five; they were the fourth-place car of Erik van Loon/Wouter Rosegaar, first-rime Dakar competitors, and the fifth place car of Vladimir Vasilyev/Konstantin Zhiltsov.
This year’s Dakar rally began and ended in Buenos Aires. It covered over 9,000 kilometers in Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia over thirteen days of competition.—Brian S. Morgan
