Stephane Peterhansel clinches 10th Dakar Rally win and first for Mini

The Frenchman, whose fourth victory in the legendary event's car category follows six wins on motorcycles, was in control of the 2012 Dakar for the majority of the distance. Early punctures and a period stuck in sand dunes two stages from the end were the only significant blips in Peterhansel's fortnight in South America.

Peterhansel's winning margin was just over 40 minutes over his X-raid Mini team-mate Nani Roma. The Spaniard had been much closer before a significant delay in the dunes yesterday. Fellow X-raid man Krzysztof Holowczyc was also a victory threat at first, but tumbled down the order with mechanical problems in the middle of the second week.

Leonid Novitskiy made sure X-raid still got three of its Minis in the top four, as he came home fourth behind Giniel de Villiers' Toyota.

The main opposition to the Minis came from the Hummers run by Robby Gordon's team, as both the American and his 2011 Dakar-winning team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah showed spectacular pace during the event.

Ultimately both encountered too many problems to contend for victory, with Al-Attiyah retiring early in the second week, and Gordon dropping back to fifth. Gordon still added victory on today's short final stage to his tally, though he was competing under appeal following a row over a tyre inflation system on his car.

Leading finishers:

Pos  Driver                   Car           Time/Gap
 1.  Stephane Peterhansel     Mini         14h54m46s
 2.  Nani Roma                Mini          + 41m56s
 3.  Giniel de Villiers       Toyota      + 1h13m25s
 4.  Leonid Novitskiy         Mini        + 2h11m54s
 5.  Robby Gordon             Hummer      + 2h16m53s
 6.  Lucio Alvarez            Toyota      + 4h05m52s
 7.  Carlos Sousa             Great Wall  + 4h30m24s
 8.  Ricardo Leal dos Santos  Mini        + 5h03m18s
 9.  Bernhard Ten Brinke      Mitsubishi  + 5h11m18s
10.  Krzysztof Holowczyc      Mini        + 6h59m38s