“We’ll try to manage the next two days”

Dakar 2019 | Stage 8 | San Juan de Marcona > Pisco
January 15 ^th 2019 - 13:54 [GMT -5]

By distancing his Stéphane Peterhansel by more than 20 minutes, the race leader appears to have shaken of the man who he sees as his main rival. Now Nani Roma occupies the role of closest pursuer, 46 minutes behind the Qatari.

“It was a good pace that we pushed. When we started with Stéphane 30 minutes in front of us regarding the start time, we didn't know what our pace was, if we were going fast or going slow. But we were really surprised when we saw the board at the finishing line, showing that we were winning the stage by twenty minutes, then eight minutes from Nani… yeah, I’m quite happy. We had one flat tyre, a slow puncture, from the sand dunes, I think – there was a big impact. But I’m quite happy, you know, I’m quite happy. We were never stuck in the dunes and we kept a really good pace. It was a good day and Mathieu also did a good job with the navigation. Also, when we see two lines, it’s easier for us. Because yesterday there were no lines and it was very difficult. But there are still two day's of the Dakar left and we’re quite happy with it going like this until now. We work day by day: I’m quite happy today that we finished with a good pace, but still we need to wait a little bit. Maybe there are other drivers that are faster, but our main target is Stéphane and now he is behind, so we’ll try to manage the next two days”.