2014 Dakar, Final Stages: Peterhansel Defies MINI, Roma Overall Winner

Despite orders from MINI to take it slow in order to assure a Dakar MINI podium sweep, during Stage 12 Stephane Peterhansel overtook Nani Roma. won the stage and entered the final stage first in the overall standings.  As motorsport.com reports:

The French pairing Stéphane Peterhansel / Jean-Paul Cottret in the black MINI ALL4 Racing proved to be the quickest in the 350-kilometre special stage from El Salvador to La Serena. With this success, Peterhansel passed Nani Roma (ESP) in the overall standings and holds the first position, now. The second fastest time was set by Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) / Lucas Cruz (ESP) in the white MINI ALL4 Racing. Roma and his French co-driver Michel Périn took their yellow MINI ALL4 Racing to third place, with Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL) and Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) in the red MINI ALL4 Racing finishing fifth. While Orlando Terranova (ARG) / Paulo Fiúza (POR) came ninth, with their orange MINI ALL4 Racing.

In the end, however, MINI got its way. As Jalopnik reports:

Spanish Driver Nani Roma and French Co-Driver Michel Perin have won the 2014 Dakar Rally cars category in a MINI ALL4 for Team X-Raid. Their total time was 050:44:58.

Just over five minutes behind them was MINI teammate Stephane Peterhansel in second, followed by yet another MINI ALL4 driven by Nasser Al-Attiyah.

Fox News Latino tells how the final stage went down:

Roma, a Mini driver, made up the 26 seconds that separated him from France's Stephane Peterhansel, the leader after the penultimate stage, on the route from La Serena to Valparaiso.

In the final standings, the Spaniard finished with a time of 50:44:58, five minutes and 38 seconds ahead of the Frenchman.

South African Giniel De Villiers won the final car stage.

Here is part of MINI's official statement on the result, as carried by motorsport.com:

The 2014 Dakar Rally was one of the toughest of all time. The 9,374 km-long route led from Rosario (AR) across the Andes and the challenging Atacama desert to Valparaíso (CL) at the Pacific coast. The drivers had to face a lot of different weather conditions and soils. Gravel in the Andes and a lot of extremely fine sand in the hot Atacama desert. MINI mastered all the challenges and won 11 of the 13 stages. It was the third win in a row since MINI made its debut at the Dakar Rally in 2011. 

The great reliability of the MINI ALL4 Racing, which is based on the MINI John Cooper Works Countryman, was underlined by the fact that all eleven cars that had started into the event crossed the finish line in Valparaíso. Seven of them finished in the top-ten, including the ones of Monster Energy X-raid Team Orlando Terranova/Paulo Fiúza (AR/PT), who finished 5th overall, and Krzysztof Holowczyc/Konstantin Zhiltsov (PL/RU), who crossed the line 6th overall.

Here are the final top six positions in the standings as well as the finish positions of all MINIs that raced at Dakar 2014:

1. N. Roma (ESP) / M. Périn (FRA) MINI ALL4 Racing – 50h 44m 58s
2. S. Peterhansel (FRA) / J.-P. Cottret (FRA) MINI ALL4 Racing – 50h 50m 36s
3. N. Al-Attiyah (QAT) / L. Cruz (ESP) MINI ALL4 Racing – 51h 41m 50s
4. G. de Villiers (ZAF) / D. von Zitzewitz (GER) Toyota – 52h 04m 05s
5. O. Terranova (ARG) / P. Fiúza (POR) MINI ALL4 Racing – 52h 12m 42s
6. K. Holowczyc (POL) / K. Zhiltsov (RUS) MINI ALL4 Racing – 54h 40m 40s
...
9. M. Kaczmarski (POL) / F. Palmeiro (POR) MINI ALL4 Racing – 57h 43m 10s
10. V. Vasilyev (RUS) / V. Yevtyekhov (UKR) MINI ALL4 Racing – 57h 44m 32s
11. B. Garafulic (CHI) / G. Picard (FRA) MINI ALL4 Racing – 58h 20m 13s
12. F. Villagra (ARG) / J. P. Companc (ARG) MINI ALL4 Racing – 59h 05m 50s
...
19. S. Schott (GER) / H. Schmidt (GER) MINI ALL4 Racing – 64h 10m 36s
...
31. Zhou Yong (CHN) / Hong Yu Pan (CHN) MINI ALL4 Racing – 74h 19m 03s