Ford drivers Mitch Guthrie and Nani Roma went head-to-head for the stage win on Thursday’s 371-kilometre special stage from Al-Ula to Hail. The experienced Spanish driver Roma edged ahead of his team-mate towards the end of the stage and set the fastest time by a margin of four seconds.
However, the stage victory ultimately went to the American Guthrie after Roma was handed a one-minute and ten-second time penalty for overspeeding. As a result, Roma dropped to second place in the stage classification. Ford’s strong performance was underlined further as Czech driver Martin Prokop secured a one-two-three for the brand.
Lucas Moraes, driving for Dacia, finished fourth on the stage, followed by three more Ford drivers: Dennis Krotov, Mattias Ekström and Carlos Sainz.
Toyota had dominated the previous stage, but on Thursday the Japanese manufacturer did not enjoy the same success. Nevertheless, Toyota driver Henk Lategan retained the overall lead in the Dakar Rally despite finishing just under 13 minutes behind Guthrie’s stage-winning time.
In the overall standings, Lategan holds a lead of just over three minutes over Dacia’s Nasser Al-Attiyah. Ford drivers Ekström, Roma, Sainz and Guthrie occupy the following positions.
“It was really, really, really difficult, one of the most difficult stages I’ve had to open. There were no bike tracks and a lot of the tracks were really, really small tracks. The rain washed a lot of them away,” Lategan lamented.
Rally legend Sébastien Loeb continues to run eighth overall, 18 minutes off the lead. Loeb did not quite match the front-running pace on Thursday, but was satisfied with his performance.
“We drove a great stage. We were really, really cautious at the start because I was afraid of getting a puncture and having to start all over again, so I drove carefully for the first 200 kilometres, before pushing harder on the second part of the stage,” Loeb reflected.
The Dakar Rally concludes on 17 January.
Dakar Rally standings after Stage 5/13:
| POS | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Henk Lategan | Toyota | 20:36:44 |
| 2. | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Dacia | +3:17 |
| 3. | Mattias Ekström | Ford | +5:38 |
| 4. | Nani Roma | Ford | +6:59 |
| 5. | Carlos Sainz | Ford | +8:33 |
| 6. | Mitch Guthrie | Ford | +16:23 |
| 7. | Lucas Moraes | Dacia | +17:11 |
| 8. | Sebastien Loeb | Dacia | +17:55 |
