WRC Team Mini Portugal


The WRC Team Mini Portugal was Mini's factory-supported World Rally Championship team.
Established in February 2012 after the Prodrive-run Mini WRC Team had its support from parent company BMW reduced, the team debuted at the Rally of Sweden. The WRC Team Mini Portugal was formed out of the merger of the Mini entries of Armindo Araújo World Rally Team and Palmeirinha Rally, which were both run by the Motorsport Italia firm for drivers Armindo Araújo and Paulo Nobre respectively. Team Mini Portugal were registered as a manufacturer entry, while the Prodrive WRC Team was demoted to a works-supported private team. The manufacturers points that had been scored by Armindo Araújo World Rally Team and Palmeirinha Rally at the Monte Carlo Rally prior to the change were removed.
On 16 August 2012 it was announced that Chris Atkinson and Stéphane Prévot would replace Armindo Araújo and Miguel Ramalho as the team's lead crew for the last five races of the 2012 WRC season.
At the end of 2012 Mini withdrew its financial support and the team was closed.

WRC Results

YearCarDriver12345678910111213PointsPoints
2012Mini John Cooper Works WRC14 Paulo NobreMONSWE
Ret
MEX
Ret
POR
DNS
ARG
Ret
GRE
17
NZL
17
FIN
38
GER
Ret
GBR
Ret
FRA
Ret
ITA
19
ESP
30
-0--
2012Mini John Cooper Works WRC14 Armindo AraújoMONSWE
15
MEX
7
POR
15
ARG
Ret
GRE
11
NZL
8
FIN
15
15th11--
2012Mini John Cooper Works WRC14 Chris AtkinsonGER
5
GBR
11
FRA
8
ITA
6
ESP
7
13th28--