Roma puts Ford up front on Dakar Stage 10

Wednesday’s 10th stage of the Dakar Rally offered the competitors a chance to frolic on the dunes of Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter after the field rolled out of Haradh before sunrise to tackle a road section of more than 500 kilometers en route to the shores of the Arabian Gulf. Starting from 27th, Nani Roma secured Ford’s first Dakar stage win with its Raptor T1+, finishing 18 seconds ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Lucas Moraes and 1m40s in front of Dania Akeel, competing in the Challenger class.

“It’s been a tough rally for us from the beginning. We tried to have a clean day,” related the veteran Spaniard, whose stage win was his 26th at Dakar in both cars and bikes, but his first since 2015. “This morning we were so fast. We understood that we needed to set another speed. We are happy for the team. The car is good, a really strong car, and we are happy with how the team works.”

Toyota’s Henk Lategan reclaimed the overall lead from Overdrive Racing Toyota driver Yazeed Al Rajhi, who lost time in the dunes, and the South African holds a 26m46s gap over Ford’s Mattias Ekstrom.

Last year at Dakar, Al Rajhi pressed so hard that his car took flight for a brief moment before crashing out of the race. This time around, the Saudi made the opposite mistake: an overabundance of caution led him to surf the dunes too slowly. He duly got stuck in a hollow, a minor calamity that relegated him to 2m27s behind Lategan. While his late start (27th) will play to his advantage, tomorrow, but Lategan (11th) will not have to open the stage either.

Nasser Al Attiyah, who had made up time with a stage win yesterday, also gave it back today as a navigation error cost the Dacia driver around 20 minutes. He remains in contention for the podium, sitting less than four minutes behind Ekstrom.

In bikes, Michael Docherty took his maiden Dakar stage win, edging out Rui Gonçalves by 1m20s. The South African rider also made history as the first Rally 2 competitor to take an overall motorbike stage victory since Danilo Petrucci in 2022.

Meanwhile, the title contenders were playing it safe, conserving energy for the second stage in the Empty Quarter. Daniel Sanders held onto the overall lead with a 16m31s advantage over Tosha Schareina and 22m24s over Adrien Van Beveren. With tomorrow’s strategic starting order, though, his challengers will have an opportunity to close the gap.

Yesterday’s SSV winner, “Chaleco” Lopez, kept the momentum going with another triumph today in the Empty Quarter. The Chilean bagged his fifth win of the season and clawed back a bit of time from Xavier de Soultrait, who remains firmly ensconced in second place overall. Brock Heger, clocking the fifth-fastest time at the finish, with the same result as fellow American Sara Price, can afford to approach the final two stages with confidence, with nearly 1h50m in hand over Polaris teammate de Soultrait and some 2h07m over Lopez.

Dania Akeel ruled the roost in the Challenger class in today’s special. Competing on home soil, the Saudi driver set the fastest time, finishing over three minutes ahead of Pau Navarro and 5m48s clear of Gonçalo Guerreiro, who gained a little on overall leader Nicholas Cavigliasso, although the Argentine still enjoys a lead of 26 minutes.

Akeel joins an elite group of women to win a stage in the Dakar, alongside Jutta Kleinschmidt, Cristina Gutiérrez and Sara Price. In the overall car rankings for the day, Akeel wrapped up the special in third place, just 1m40s off Ultimate class winner Roma.

“We started at the back because we’d had some bad days before… There were a lot of cars on the road, but you know, on the dunes it’s a little bit easier to pass because you don’t have any dust,” she said. “I really had a great day, very relaxed, I just wanted to have a great time. I love driving in the dunes — it reminds me of a boat in the water because of the way you have to jump around the waves.”