Roma consolidates fifth place in Dakar Rally

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain Raid Xtreme driver Nani Roma set out from Neom, towards Al-Ula for stage ten of the Dakar Rally 2021 in the #311 Hunter. Ahead of Roma was a 583km stage, made up of 241km of road and 342km of special stage.

Roma started the stage looking to maintain his top five position overall, and once again showcased the Hunter’s speed and reliability over another gruelling stage. A unique aspect of today’s stage was the two neutralisation zones, where Roma had the opportunity to take support from the BRX team if needed.

The Spaniard has been consistently competing within the top ten over most of this year’s set of stages, and finished stage ten in 10th, with a time of 03:14:34, +10:37 behind the leader. This maintains Roma’s position as fifth overall, +2:50:22 behind the overall leader.

“It was an interesting stage, with a different type of terrain. We had two stops today, which were planned and part of the route; for me I like to keep pushing for the whole stage and like the pressure, but it’s a part of the race, and no problems with the car,” Roma said in comments at tonight’s bivouac in Al Ula.

“For the rest of today it was good, and we really enjoyed the last part of the stage. At the start the navigation was not easy, so we had to manage our speed to make sure we didn’t make any mistakes. Thursday’s stage will be longer, and could be tough, but we are happy after today. The team have done a great job, and the car from the start was good, so Alex and I are looking forward to going again tomorrow.”

BRX Team Principal, Paul Howard added “Another consistent day for Nani, who has consolidated his position overall and we are maintaining our pace and strong reliability, with no issues.”

“The pace at the front of the group is incredibly fast, so there are people not giving up on overall victory. Seb’s car was on the road sections for today, as part of the rules of the rally – so even though Seb is no longer in the rally, we had the opportunity to get more mileage into his Hunter,” he said.

“This is all good learning for the future. We had a good debrief with Seb before he went home, and he is even hungrier to come back next year and put the record books straight.”

Stage eleven of the Dakar Rally will include the longest special stage of the rally. Drivers will have 43km of road driving before 511km of special stage to navigate, leaving Al Ula for Yanbu.