Geoffrey Harris•16 Jan 2012

NEWS

MOTORSPORT: MINI's Dakar glory – now for Monte Carlo

Victory in the world's toughest event has given MINI a great start to the year and now comes its return to the Monte Carlo Rally, while confirmation of Mazda's entry to the ARC is imminent.

Legendary Peterhansel chalks up victory No. 10

MINI has won the Dakar Rally. Not only that, French marathon rally superstar Stephane Peterhansel has notched his 10th victory in the event. Another MINI All4 Racing was second - and all five prepared by Germany’s X-Raid finished in the top 10.

Now attention turns to the modern MINI’s debut in the Monte Carlo Rally, which the marque so famously won three times in the 1960s.

On the Australian rallying front, confirmation is expected within days of a Mazda entry in this year’s national championship for multiple champion Simon Evans.

After almost 8,400km – about half of them competitive - from Mar del Plata in Argentina, through Chile to Lima, the capital of Peru, over the past two weeks, Stephane Peterhansel has added to his Dakar Rally legend.

His latest victory is his fourth in the event in cars – the previous three were with Mitsubishi - after six on two wheels.

It was Peterhansel’s first win in the four years the Dakar has been run in South America.

MINI won eight of this year’s 13 stages – courtesy of four different drivers - and, although not factory entries, the marque led from the first day until the last.

Peterhansel won three stages this year and, having been the early pacesetter, led continuously from the third day to join Finnish legend Ari Vatanen as the recordholder in the car category.

French compatriot Cyril Despres won the motorcycle section for the fourth time on a KTM, giving that manufacturer its 11th victory in a row.

Peterhansel, who finished almost 42 minutes ahead of Spanish teammate Nani Roma, said he had been waiting five years for his 10th Dakar triumph and had been wondering if, at 46, he was getting too old for it.

“This race is stressful, exciting and fascinating - and it’s also very rewarding at the end,” Peterhansel said.

“My finest victory will always be my first win in the motorcycle category (in 1991), but this one has something special to it.

“I was starting to doubt myself, to think I was growing too old for this, that I’d lost it or that I wasn’t made for South America ... and in the end everything turned out fine.

“I still have a blue bandana from my motorcycling period. I didn’t tell anyone, but I kept it in my pocket throughout the entire rally. It’s the story of the comeback of the blue bandana.”

Peterhansel’s total time for the competitive stages was 38 hours 54 minutes and 46 seconds.

Like Peterhansel, Roma won three stages of the event.

South African Giniel De Villiers, winner for Volkswagen in 2009, was third in a Toyota Hilux, almost 1¼ hours behind Peterhansel.

American Robby Gordon won the final stage to take fifth place in his Hummer, subject to his appeal on its legality.

Gordon was often the fastest driver in the event after the retirement early in the second week of last year’s victor, Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah, in another of

Gordon’s two-wheel-drive American machines.

Gordon ended 2¼ hours behind Peterhansel.

Of the 443 vehicles that started the event’s four categories (the other two were quads and trucks) 247 finished - 78 cars, 97 motorcycles, 60 trucks and 12 quads.

Australia’s sole competitor in the car section, Geoff Olholm of Cairns in a BMW-powered Desert Warrior, was classified 50th after an eventful fortnight during which he had repeated engine problems, drove over a cliff and was tangled in a five-car collision on the last day.

Olholm has completed the event both times he has contested it – he was 27th last year – but, while an outstanding 19th on the penultimate stage at the weekend, he gave away time in the final days assisting other competitors in trouble.

The three of the six Australian motorcycle riders to finish this year were classified 40th (Dean Nuttall on a KTM/450 Replica), 43rd (David Schwarz, Husaberg/FE450) and 54th (Jamie Chittick, Honda/CRF450X).

Enhanced Citroen still the one to beat in WRC

Despite the off-season turmoil in the World Rally Championship, still not entirely sorted, this year’s series is set to start on Wednesday with the 80th Monte Carlo Rally.

A century after the first “Monte”, it is the classic rally with its unique mix of ice, snow and tarmac in and around the wealthy principality, along the French Riviera and into the French Alps.

It starts at Valence and finishes in Monaco on Sunday, with 18 stages and 430km timed.

Five types of tyres are available to competitors – three variations of slicks, snow rubber and studded tyres.

Back in the WRC for the first time since 2008, after having been part of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the rally will mark the debut of Ford’s 2011 WRC runner-up Mikko Hirvonen as Citroen teammate of eight-time world champion Sebastien Loeb, Petter Solberg joining Jari-Matti Latvala at Ford, Dani Sordo starting MINI’s first full season and Sebastien Ogier driving a Super 2000 Skoda Fabia while his VW Polo R is developed for next year.

Sordo gave MINI two podiums in its partial campaign last year and said testing had gone well for this season despite the manufacturer’s Prodrive-run team only guaranteeing one full-time entry in the championship.

“The important thing was to do tyre testing and we have been able to do this with Michelin,” Sordo said.

“The issue on the ‘Monte’ will be the conditions – they can change very quickly.”

Prodrive chief David Richards has passed the role of MINI team principal to former technical director Dave Wilcock.

Citroen’s DS3 scored 10 wins in the 13 events last year and, apart from recruiting Hirvonen to replace the fiery Ogier, the team that has won both the manufacturer and driver titles the past four years has had a management shake-up.

New team principal Yves Matton has said that as well as concentrating on continued success this year he has “to work on the post-Sebastien Loeb issue”.

Qatar’s Dakar specialist Nasser Al-Attiyah will drive a third factory Citroen from the second round of the WRC in Sweden next month.

Citroen’s technical director said there were three major changes to the DS3 this year - “a significant engine upgrade, a new clutch and an altered electrical circuit”.

“We have also worked with Michelin on adjusting the set-up of the cars, with the supply of new tarmac tyres which offer greater protection against punctures,” he said..

“The arrival of Mikko Hirvonen has also enabled us to improve certain points on the handling of the DS3 by taking advantage of his extensive experience and knowledge.”

Under rule changes this year only three engines will be allowed per car for the season.

Bigger things expected of Webber

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner is talking up Australian Formula One driver Mark Webber’s chances of a greatly improved showing against dual world champion teammate Sebastien Vettel this year – and so is former racer David Coulthard.

“It’s very difficult going up against a driver of Sebastian’s calibre, being matched and measured against somebody of his standard,” Horner said at the Autosport International Show in Britain.

“Mark had a difficult start to 2011, but he adapted and he worked hard at it - and he worked hard to understand the tyres, in particular.

“His performances grew and grew throughout the year and it was great to see him win that final race in Brazil.

“He has gone away and trained hard through the [northern] winter and his enthusiasm has rejuvenated and I think 2012 could be a very strong year for Mark.

“For us it is a great pairing. OK, there is over a 10-year age difference between the two of them, so they are at different stages of their career. So they push each other very hard and they bring the best out of each other, I think.”

Coulthard, the McLaren veteran who ended his F1 career with Webber as his teammate at Red Bull, said the Aussie “just needs to rediscover his mojo in qualifying” to regain his competitiveness against Vettel.

“We’ve seen some incredible performances from Mark, and he’s a gutsy driver - his pass [last season] on Alonso at Spa, going into Eau Rouge ... I nearly dropped the microphone in the commentary box, because I thought it was going to be an aeroplane crash – but he pulled it off,” Coulthard said.

“He is definitely a great racing driver.

“One of his key strengths in the past was his qualifying, and if you qualify well it makes your whole weekend so much easier, because within the team you get the prime choice on strategy, you’ve got track position, and running in clean air is much easier than running in dirty air.

“Mark just needs to rediscover his mojo for qualifying and he’ll be fine, because all the rest is there.

“But there’s no question that in 2011 he was not as strong as he was in 2010. You can’t hide from that fact, and Sebastian somehow gained in confidence and really grew in his qualifying performances.

“That was key to him winning so many races and the championship.”

Ambrose warms up for big year in America

Australia’s NASCAR racer Marcos Ambrose has been testing at Daytona for the new American stock car season.

He was third fastest in one of the sessions as teams prepare for the non-championship Shootout at the famous Florida speedway on February 18 and then the Daytona 500 there on February 26.

NASCAR has gone to electronic fuel injection systems on the cars this year and is trying to make the multi-car drafting that was a feature of last season’s super-speedway races more difficult.

Ambrose said drafting techniques had not changed greatly so far in testing and that he liked the fuel injection.

Entering his second year with Richard Petty Motorsports he said: “We need to be better than in 2011, and I think we are going to do that.

“We’re going to be a much stronger force … step it up to the next level.

“We’ve kept the foundation the same and we will be able to build off that.”

Of new teammate Aric Amarola, the driver of Cuban heritage who has joined RPM following AJ Allmendinger’s switch to Penske Racing, Ambrose said: “We are going to be a good two-car team. We need to get some confidence in each other’s drafting ability to get us ready for the Daytona 500.”

Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at the carsales mobile site

MOTORSPORT: MINI's Dakar glory – now for Monte Carlo

Tags