Roma surges to Dakar Rally lead as Goczals enjoy family triumph on Stage 9

Ford’s Nani Roma moved into the overall lead of the Dakar Rally after Stage Nine of the event, while Eryk Goczal ensured this year's streak of a different stage winner on each day continued.

The Energylandia Rally Team driver beat teammate and uncle Michal Goczal by 7m45s on the 410km run from Wadi ad Dawasir to Bashir.

But Roma, who started the day fourth, ended on top after a litany of issues befell the frontrunners – including himself.

“I had three punctures today but I think everyone had problems today,” said Roma. “After the middle of the stage with two punctures we had to go really slowly. After we found Nasser and everyone turning around searching. We turned a little bit too but we found the track.

“Then we had another puncture but everyone had problems today and we're here at the finish.

“We’ll see tomorrow. I knew this morning that these two days would be the crucial days. Now we’ll see and cross our fingers tomorrow. We must be humble and calm and try to finish tomorrow in Bisha.”

Rally leader at the start of the day, Nasser Al-Attiyah, could only muster the 12th quickest time on the stage after getting lost.

“It was tricky navigation but what can we do?” said Al-Attiyah. “I don’t know which position we are in and how many minutes we have lost to the winner, we will see how we’ll be. It’s ok, no problem, we’ll see tomorrow. We’re absolutely ready for it”.

Toyota's lead charger Henk Lategan had power steering issues, with the Fords of Mattias Ekstrom – who started the day second but slipped to fifth, just ahead of Sebastien Loeb who maintained sixth overall but lost time with a power steering problem – and Mitch Guthrie both lost considerable time, the latter over an hour, ending all but ending his victory chances.

Carlos Sainz in the fourth Ford Raptor also lost time due to a penalty, but ended the day second overall behind Roma after taking seventh on the stage.

Behind the Energylandia duo, Toby Price was the highest-placed works driver in the stage in third, ahead of Century Racing Factory Team's Brian Baragwanath, X-Raid's Guillaume de Mevius, and Dacia's Cristina Gutierrez. Lionel Baud (X-Raid) and Gaoxiang Fan (JJ-Sport) completed the top-10.

Rokas Baciuska once again won in the Stock class ahead of Defender teammate Sara Price to maintain the overall lead in that class. Paul Spierings took Challenger Class honors, a minute and 20 seconds ahead of Kevin Benavides, while in the Bikes, Tosha Schareina won from Daniel Sanders, who maintains the overall lead.

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