Previous Dakar winner Carlos Sainz set the early pace on stage 8 today. The stage was run between San Juan de Marcona and Pisco. A 215 km liaison was followed by a 360 km timed section.. The Spaniard had not won a stage in the 2019 event and was quite keen to do so today. He put a large chunk of time between himself and Peterhansel who ran second through the early part of the day. Overall race leader Nasser Al-Attiyah was third in the initial phase of stage 8.
Image: Red Bull Content Pool
Then disaster stuck for WRC champ Sainz. He got stuck in the sand in a section of dunes and lost over 15 minutes to his rivals. Cyril Depres suffered the same fate, a few hundred metres from his Mini team-mate. This opened up the door for the Toyota Hilux drivers who used their all-wheel-drive to good effect in Dakar Rally stage 8. Al-Attiyah grabbed the stage lead and stayed in that position until the end. South Africa Giniel de Villiers jumped up to second on the road as two Toyotas led three Minis.
Stage honours
Behind Al-Attiyah there was a ding-dong battle as De Villiers, Jakub Przygonski and Nani Roma ran within seconds of each other to see who would finish second on stage 8. Przygonski bested the other two and claimed second ahead of De Villiers. Roma would finish fourth ahead of Peterhansel.
General classification
When all the front runners had crossed the line it was Al-Attiyah who claimed the stage and retained the overall lead of the race. More importantly, the Qatari increased his overall lead over Stephane Peterhansel who ran into trouble in the dunes. He has relinquished second place in the general standings to Roma, who had a great day. De Villiers now lies fifth overall.
Check out the official Dakar YouTube channel for a video review of the day.
1 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel Toyota 29 hr 15 min 50 sec
2 Nani Roma/Alex Haro Bravo Mini +46 min 29 sec
3 Stephane Peterhansel/David Castera Mini +53 min 30 sec
4 Jakub Przygonski/Tom Colsoul + 2 hr 19 min 50 sec
5 Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz Toyota +7 hr 01 min 01 sec
Source: Double Apex.co.za