{"id":22417,"date":"2026-01-14T15:04:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/spains-roma-sainz-lead-dakar-rally-after-brutal-stage-in-saudi-arabia\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:24","slug":"spains-roma-sainz-lead-dakar-rally-after-brutal-stage-in-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/spains-roma-sainz-lead-dakar-rally-after-brutal-stage-in-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain\u2019s Roma, Sainz lead Dakar Rally after brutal stage in Saudi Arabia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Spaniard Nani Roma moved into the lead of the Dakar Rally car standings after a demanding ninth stage across the Saudi Arabian desert, guiding Ford to a one-two finish ahead of fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Former overall leader and five-time Dakar champion Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar, driving for Dacia, slipped to third after a difficult day but remains firmly in contention, sitting just one minute and 10 seconds behind Roma. South African (SA) driver Henk Lategan, racing for Toyota, is fourth overall, although he now has an additional five minutes to make up.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sainz said navigation proved particularly challenging during the stage, as cars were forced to take a different route from the motorcycles, leaving drivers without tracks to follow. \u201cAt one point it was very difficult to find the way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For SA\u2019s Lategan, the stage turned into a frustrating outing. He described it as \u201ca bit of a disaster\u201d after losing his way, suffering a puncture, damaging his windscreen and experiencing power-steering problems.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Dakar Rally, which concludes on Saturday on Saudi Arabia\u2019s Red Sea coast, marks the opening round of the World Rally-Raid Championship season.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22418,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-22417","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Spaniard Nani Roma moved into the lead of the Dakar Rally car","published_date":"2026-01-14 16:13:55","news_description":"Spaniard Nani Roma moved into the lead of the Dakar Rally car","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25722,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22417\/revisions\/25722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}