Nani Roma leads the charge at the Silk Way Rally, Mini ensures

Offside for the fight for the general classification, the Spaniard won his first stage in the 2018 edition while his teammate Yazeed Al-Rajhi consolidated his leadership.

Published on 25/07/2018 à 18:06

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Nani Roma leads the charge at the Silk Way Rally, Mini ensures

This Silk Way Rally 2018 is definitely open. Migraine during the first day (he even turned around to return to the bivouac), Nani Rome (Mini) forgot his pain linked to his Dakar accident to set the best time on the fifth stage linking Astrakhan (Russia) to Volgograd (Russia, formerly Stalingrad) on Wednesday.

Slow motion moments #silkwayrally2018 #Roadtomoscow pic.twitter.com/HRsJ01Jk3E

— Silk Way Rally (@silkwayrally) July 25, 2018

The Spaniard, associated with Alex Haro on the reliable Mini John Cooper Works Rally 4×4, has definitively let go of his teammate from the X-Raid team Yazeed Al-Rajhi in the last section of the stage. The Saudi has in fact taken it easy in order to preserve your advantage in the general ranking without taking any unnecessary risks.

It was a great fight between Nani and Yazeed today. After 443km Nani took the first stage victory for X-raid at the #SilkWayRally 2018. Yazeed could extend his lead in the overall standing with the second place. #MINI @YazeedRacing @NaniRoma pic.twitter.com/FHlIlUmj1z

— X-raid Team (@XraidTeam) July 25, 2018

Yazeed Al-Rajhi was right, as he increased his lead to 1h14’ on Mathieu Serradori (TRS). The Frenchman lost more than half an hour in the last 150 kilometers due to windshield wiper problem. Another challenger, another problem for Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota, 3rd at 1h27'). The Hilux 4×4 has transformed into a 4×2 again, its rear differential being out of service as was the case during the marathon stage on Sunday.

If you have traction to test off-road, your driver is there.@AlAttiyahN = king of 2-wheel drive @silkwayrally pic.twitter.com/6jTuF6FUvz

— Mathieu Baumel (@matthieubaumel) July 24, 2018

The Qatari stopped his mount twice in order to cool the front differential, which was overused on the course. Finally, Harry Hunt (Peugeot ) had bad luck again. The Briton seemed headed for a stage success when the gearbox of the 3008DKR Maxi gave up the ghost. Arrested with more than four hours of out-of-pocket expenses, he simply had to wait for the assistance truck.