The Silk Way Rally has always been an exhausting and demanding race for teams. The 2017 Rally kicked off just a few days ago, with Russia’s Red Square as the starting point. Mini has sent three teams to compete in the race this year, with two vehicles driving for the X-raid Team, and one for G-Energy Team. The first team consists of two experienced drivers, Yazeed Al Rajhi from Saudi Arabia and Tom Colsoul from Belgium. All of them will be driving the Mini John Cooper Works Rally, a car designed to overcome different kinds of harsh climatic conditions.

Around a quarter of the rally will be held in Russia of the 9,559km route, and the rest will take part throughout China, with 15 days of racing coming to an end in Xi’an on the 22nd of July.