Quattroroute, italys leading Car magazine invited Alain Prost to make the check out of two car comparing them:
-Mini Cooper S JCW 1.6 192 CV
-Grande Punto Abarth essesse 1.4 180 CV
the article is obvously in italian, but I can say, that for Mr Prost the winner is the GPunto. And that with no doubt.
as I consider him able to judge, I like to see, that he says, that the engeneers did such a good job on the essesse that the ESP doesn´t have to work, if you are able to drive.