RIYADH: Spaniard Nani Roma edged out compatriot Carlos Sainz in a Ford one-two finish at the top of the Dakar Rally car standings on Tuesday after a difficult ninth stage in the Saudi Arabian desert for some leaders.
Former Dacia leader and five-time winner Nasser Al-Attiyah has slipped to third but still just one minute 10 seconds behind Roma, while Toyota’s South African Henk Lategan is fourth – and with still five minutes to make up.
“I had three punctures today, but I think everyone had problems,” said Roma, who last led the Dakar 12 years ago when he won. “We’re confident we’re here.”
Sainz said it had been difficult to find his way at one point, with cars taking a different route to motorbikes and no longer having tracks to follow.
Lategan described it as “a little disaster of a day” after getting lost, suffering a puncture, a broken windscreen and loss of power steering.
“I was driving without power steering, which is extremely difficult in these cars because the wheels are so big you have to have enormous power to even turn the wheels,” he said.
“And then we had more punctures, we got lost and we hit this bush in the dust from Seb (Loeb) which broke the windshield. So we had to stop and smash the windshield because I couldn’t see from inside the car, put on glasses and continue.”
The 410km stage from Wadi Ad Dawasir to the night bivouac, the first half of a marathon stage, was won by 21-year-old Polish unofficial Toyota driver Eryk Goczal.
He finished seven minutes ahead of his uncle Michal, also from the Energylandia team, while his father Marek was in 31st position.
Australian Toby Price, two-time Dakar motorcycle winner, finished third in the stage for Toyota.
Sainz, 63, was handed a one minute 10 second penalty for speeding and finished the stage seventh, but ahead of most of his rivals, including eighth-place Roma.
The four-time Dakar winner is now 57 seconds behind Roma, who also won the motorcycle race in 2004.
Swede Mattias Ekström, who had finished second overall for Ford, lost significant time due to a navigation error and dropped to fifth, 11 minutes and 19 seconds off the pace. Loeb, a nine-time world rally champion in a Dacia, finished sixth.
Spaniard Tosha Schareina won the stage in the motorcycle category for Honda, with Argentine KTM rider Luciano Benavides losing the lead and his overall lead to Australian defending champion Daniel Sanders.
Sanders, also on a KTM, was ahead of Honda’s American Ricky Brabec by six minutes and 24 seconds.
The race, which ends on Saturday on the Red Sea coast, is the first round of the World Rally Raid Championship (W2RC) season.
Published in Dawn, January 14, 2026
