Stéphane Peterhansel (FRA) was victorious in his MINI John Cooper Works Buggy during the 2021 Dakar Rally making it a 6th overall win for MINI. Peterhansel has successfully extended his record at the Dakar to an impressive 14 overall wins.
Peterhansel and Boulanger finished the 2021 Dakar Rally with a lead of 14:51 minutes in the overall standings. Despite only obtaining one stage win throughout the event, the team performed consistently well throughout the race with no major mistakes.
“I’m over the moon with the win. The pressure was immense since we were leading the overall standings for much of the race. Things were perfect between Edouard and me, and I was delighted to have him sit next to me. He couldn’t have done anything better.”
Stéphane Peterhansel
2020 Dakar Rally champions, Carlos Sainz (ESP) and his co-driver Victor Cruz (ESP) finished the event in third place with their MINI JCW Buggy recording a 1:01:57 hours deficit behind Peterhansel and Boulanger.
This year’s victory is yet another highlight in Peterhansel’s already impressive record at Dakar. He currently holds six rally wins on a motorcycle (1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998) while he has logged eight victories in a car (2004, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021).
MINI itself has had multiple victories at the Dakar with the marque securing four consecutive wins with the MINI ALL4 Racing between 2012 and 2015, and back-to-back wins with the MINI JCW Buggy.
This year, another MINI crew also placed in the top ten. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS) and Dmitry Tsyro (UKR) was in sixth place in the MINI JCW Rally.
In total eight MINI cars joined the Saudi Arabia rally this 2021 with six of them reaching the finish line.
[Source: Mini]
