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Sebastian Loeb has won the Sardinian stage of the world rally championship. This is now such a regular occurrence, it barely counts as news any more.

So the big talking point in Sardinia this weekend was actually the return of Mini to the WRC after several decades away (as evidenced by that dandy picture above of Kris Meeke airing out his underbody). The car maker had a decent run all the way back in the 60s, and this year has returned with a Prodrive-engineered Countryman John Cooper Works.

Although Meeke had problems with his car throughout the weekend, Dani Sordo drove his Countryman to a not-bad-at-all sixth place finish on the car's first outing. Click through the gallery for our pics as Loeb scored his second win of the season and 64th overall, and a really fast Countryman made its debut...

Pics: Katie Johnson