Nani Roma.

Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart's Joan 'Nani' Roma/Lucas Cruz (Spain), and Luc Alphand/Gilles Picard (France), today secured good result for the Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution on Portugal's Rally Transiberico.

The menu of the 2007 FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup's opening round featured seven twisty, narrow stages that were far more akin to WRC competition than the sort of baja or desert terrain more readily associated with the world of cross-country rallying. Yet although the event was ultimately won by ex-WRC champ Carlos Sainz, Roma pushed hard from the outset to keep his fellow Spaniard under pressure. However, when the former biker had to stop and change a puncture just 7km into Saturday morning's 220km test, it handed his rival a chance to pull out a sufficiently comfortable cushion at the top to then be able to control from in front for the remainder of the weekend. Then, on the final day ?.

As in 2006, Roma was joined on the podium by his Mitsubishi team-mate Luc Alphand at the end of the 2,220.98km event which featured 1,131.59km of against-the-clock action en route from the rally's base in Estoril, west of Lisbon, to overnight halts in Badajoz, Spain, and Evora, Portugal, before returning to the Atlantic casino resort of Estoril for the finish ceremony.

Alphand's run suffered an initial setback on Day 2 when he damaged his steering after clipping a rock. He then lost a further ten or so minutes on Saturday morning when the organisers had trouble pulling him clear of a muddy water-splash, an incident that essentially prevented the French crew from finishing the penultimate leg any higher than fourth overall behind Sainz, Roma and Carlos Sousa. The final day saw the Frenchman make a thrilling bid to clinch a top-three finish on the final day but fell short by a margin of less than two minutes after pulling back nearly six minutes of his deficit compared with Sousa on Saturday morning.

"It's been a good rally, but we picked up three punctures in all over the weekend and we really needed a totally trouble-free run if we were to stand any chance of winning," observed Roma. "For the second year running, I will have to settle for 2nd place on the Transiberico, although there is no shame in finishing runner-up to someone of Carlos Sainz's experience and calibre, especially on stages like this. Lucas and I gave it our very best shot, but in the end there was little we could do to put any significant pressure on the leader after the time we dropped early on."

Luc Alphand.

Meanwhile, still buzzing from his late challenge to pass Sousa which saw him post the fastest time in the final stage of the weekend, Luc looked back at the way his weekend unfolded with mixed feelings. "It's been great fighting at this level of competition and I'm delighted to have set at least one fastest time," he enthused. "We finished less than two minutes off the podium despite the time we lost on Saturday morning waiting for the organisers to pull us out of a water-crossing. That was so frustrating. Then, on the morning of the final day, we were asked to tuck in behind Roma on the stage after he suffered two punctures. He didn't have any spares left and so it was only logical for me to stay with him to protect his second place rather than risk throwing everything away by trying to pass Sousa. I think we've all learnt a great deal this weekend and I can't wait to put those lessons to good effect when my programme resumes in Argentina at the end of the summer."