Ten years since his last stage victory, Nani Roma claimed a win in the Dakar Rally, triumphing in the tenth stage on Wednesday. With just two days remaining, Henk Lategan regained the overall lead.
In a short stage across the desert and dunes of the Empty Quarter, Roma (Ford M-Sport) was the fastest, narrowly edging Lucas Moraes (Toyota) by just 18 seconds after 120km of timed racing.
In the overall classification for the stage among light four-wheel vehicles, Dania Akeel (Team BBR/Taurus), competing in the Challenger class, secured third place. Brian Baragwanath (Century Racing) finished fourth, while Francisco López Contardo (Can-Am) came in fifth, also from the Challenger category. The top five of the Ultimate class was rounded out by Daniel Schröder (PS Laser Racing/Volkswagen) and Juan Cruz Yacopini (Overdrive Racing/Toyota).
Contenders for the overall podium were further back in this stage. Lategan (Toyota) managed only 24th place in the combined Ultimate/Challenger/SSV rankings but still gained time on Yazeed Al Rajhi.
The Overdrive Racing driver, who led the overall standings before the stage, encountered some issues along the route and ended up 57th. With two days to go, Lategan holds a slim 2m27s lead over the Saudi driver, leaving the competition wide open.
Mattias Ekström (Ford M-Sport) is third overall, 26m46s off the lead, with less than four minutes separating him from Nasser Al-Attiyah (The Dacia Sandriders) in fourth. Mitchell Guthrie (Ford M-Sport) remains in fifth place.
