Sandwiched between the biggest MINI fan festival in the world and the world's toughest circuit race in the world at the Nürburgring, Dani Sordo claimed the biggest win of his rally career so far by winning the Rally Corsica. As a guest starter in a MINI John Cooper Works S2000 in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, Dani was involved in a thrilling duel with Jan Kopecký. After a hard-fought start of the rally Dani was able to take the top spot overall and defended it with a thrilling ride across French Mediterranean island. In the end he won with a lead of 17.9 second over Kopecký.

Next up is the Rally Greece. Although it would undoubtedly have been a real treat to see the "King of Corsica" in action there in his MINI John Cooper Works WRC, fans will have to wait until the Rally New Zealand, which starts on 22^nd June, to catch Dani’s next competitive outing. Despite this, MINI enthusiasts can look forward to world-class rallying in Greece. There will be no shortage of MINI action, with three MINI WRC cars lining up at the Rally Greece. The regular pairing of Armindo Araujo and Paulo Nobre will be in action for WRC Team MINI Portugal.

Hot affair in Greece.

A surprise starter will also take to the start in Greece: Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, who stood atop the podium at the Qatar International Rally at the end of January for the Seashore Qatar Rally Team. He led the way at his home race in the MINI John Cooper Works S2000. "The biggest win of my career," was how the man from Qatar described his success. Abdulaziz is now looking to maintain his excellent form as he moves across to the WRC version of the MINI. It is quite literally a case of "out of the frying pan, into the fire" as he makes his debut in the MINI WRC.

Outside temperatures of around 30 degrees transform the WRC cars into saunas on four wheels. The rough, dirt tracks in rural Greece not only put the tyres to the test (a maximum 48 tyres can be used over the course of the rally), but also shake every last screw on the cars. The Rally Greece is the ultimate test for man and machine. By the time the cars reach the finish on Sunday morning, they will have 22 special stages and 409.47 timed kilometres behind them. The action gets underway at 18:25 local time on Thursday evening with the 25.24-kilometre "Kineta" stage.

As always, you can keep up to speed with all the action from the Rally Greece at Twitter.com/MINImotorsport and Facebook.com/MINImotorsport.