Spaniard Joan “Nani” Roma and Frenchman Michel Périn made their presence felt when they won the last special stage in Peru before the Dakar circus crossed over into Chile yesterday. Despite the stage being relatively short (172 km), most it was a tough trek through treacherous rocky terrain.
Yesterday’s winners were tailed by X-Raid teammates and overall leaders Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean Paul Cottret, who were just 1 minute 23 seconds in arrears. The leading X-Raid Mini is now just under ten minutes ahead of nearest threat, the Red Bull Qatar buggy of Nasser Al-Attiyah and Lucas Cruz.
“I felt good this morning. We drove well and tried to remain concentrated throughout the special, which was magnificent. It’s all going well for us for the moment. Long may it continue,” Roma said yesterday.
Despite the comedy of errors surrounding Americans Robby Gordon and Kellon Walch right from the very beginning of this year’s Dakar, which resulted in them nearly six hours behind the top runners, the duo fought hard to earn third yesterday – their Hummer just three minutes behind Roma and Perin. South African Giniel de Villiers brought his Imperial Hilux to the bivouac in fourth, 1 minute 51 seconds behind Gordon.
“It was not a long stage but quite fast, twisty at the beginning. We had a small problem with the rear brakes – we lost a bit of rear brake, so we’ll have to look at what the problem is tonight, but other than that it was a nice stage and beautiful along the beach,” de Villiers said yesterday.
A half-hour Dakar highlights package will be screened on SuperSport2 (DStv channel 202) at 22:30 every day, with five repeats the following day, from January 5.
