MOTORSPORT: MINI makes it four on Dakar

MINI has notched its fourth straight victory in the Dakar Rally, with Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah leading the two-week event virtually all the way for his second win in the ultra-marathon.

The highlight for Australia was the podium finish on debut for 27-year-old Hunter Valley motorcycle rider and multiple Finke Desert Race winner Toby Price.

Price, from Singleton, 80 kilometres north-west of Newcastle, won the penultimate stage of the Dakar in the two-wheel category and finished the rally little more than 23 minutes behind Spaniard and fellow KTM rider Marc Coma, who claimed his fifth victory, second in a row and the 14th for KTM.

Price was only a little over six minutes behind second-placed Honda rider, Paulo Goncalves of Portugal, and became only the second Australian to have achieved a Dakar podium beside another motorcycle rider, Andy Haydon, in 1998.

Aussies have never finished higher than 11th in the cars on the event.

"It's crazy. I never thought I'd be on the podium [in my first Dakar]," Price said.

"This event throws everything at you. To make the finish line is a win in itself.

"The navigation on this event is hard work ... really hard. And I've only had about four weeks [experience] of it [navigation].

"My initial goal was just to finish. Then, after the first week, it was to finish in the top 20. And then it became to finish in the top five.

"To have won a stage and finished on the podium is just awesome.

"I've had great support, including from back home in Australia, and now I hope I can challenge for a win on the Dakar in the future."

Torrential rain on the final day caused organisers to shorten the 13th and final special stage – to only 34km from 174km for the cars – as the remaining competitors in the torture test returned to Buenos Aires, where they had started on January 4.

Al-Attiyah, who was the last of Volkswagen's three consecutive victors on the Dakar in 2011, was fastest on seven stages this year in his X-Raid MINI, although he was stripped of the stage win the first day for exceeding the speed limit in a restricted zone.

"It's a fantastic feeling to lead from the beginning and finish in first place," Al-Attiyah said.

"This Dakar has been 100 per cent perfect for us [Al-Attiyah and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel] – the navigation, the team and the [Michelin] tyres have all been perfect.

"It could not have gone any better.

"From the start my feeling was that we were completely under control, but of course I could not relax for a second as we have seen in the past that anything can happen."

South African Giniel De Villiers, winner of the event when it moved to South America in 2009 after terrorism fears in Africa, finished second in a Toyota Hilux – 35½ minutes behind Al-Attiyah.

It was De Villiers' fifth podium in the Dakar and the third time he has been runner-up.

Another MINI, driven by Poland's Krzysztof Holowczyc, was third – more than 1½ hours behind Al-Attiyah.

Czech-born Australian Peter Jerie made the finish in 42nd place in his Toyota Hilux – the only one of three Aussie starters in the car category. West Australian Adrian Di Lallo, in an Isuzu MU-X, was excluded early in the event for failing to make a stage start on time, while Geoff Olholm, from Cairns, crashed his Hilux mid-event and has been recovering in hospital in Chile from back injuries.

Peugeot, a four-time winner of the Dakar in Africa last century, admitted that its return to the event with a two-wheel-drive diesel, its 2008 DKR model, had been "not really satisfactory", but it remains committed to its 2WD concept.

French legend Stephane Peterhansel, an 11-time winner of the event (six times on bikes, five times in cars), finished 11th – almost 5 hours and 20 minutes behind the victorious MINI – after three bad days this time.

Spaniard Carlos Sainz, who beat Al-Attiyah in 2010 when they were both driving VW Touaregs, rolled out of this year's Dakar mid-event, while Cyril Depres – a five–time winner on two wheels making his debut on four – was classified 34th outright, more than 15½ hours down.

Peugeot Sport director Bruno Famin said the 2008 DKR had not been fast enough, while Peterhansel said it "lacked some oomph".

The man known as "Monsieur Dakar", Peterhansel, said it was always unlikely that Peugeot would be truly competitive in the first year of its return to the event.

"We lacked some preparation, but we haven't had any real problems," he said.

"I knew a miracle wouldn't happen.

"In motorsport, if you don't drive thousands of kilometres and test everything, no miracles happen on racing day.

"We've taken the first step. We've made it to the finish, and from here on it should be better for us, I hope."

Famin said that, while Peugeot's results were unsatisfactory, "on two or three occasions we were able to fight for the stage victory – but unfortunately we couldn't make it".

"We can see that the performance is a bit missing to be able to fight for the overall victory," he said.

"It's something we didn't work on before the race because we focused all of our tests on reliability – and we did well because we have two cars at the finish.

"We didn't spend any time on performance. The car is rough, we are at the very beginning of the development and we have many ideas to develop the engine, the suspension, to reduce weight – all performance factors.

"Now the target is to select the items we are going to work on to be able to have a well-performing car for 2016 as early as possible to make a lot of tests and to be able to fight for victory in 2016."