The 458 km stage from A Duwadimi to Ha’il saw an Audi 1- 2 with Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist heading home the other woundee, Stephane Peterhansel/Edouard Boulanger. Neither are in the running for overall honours but it was a great performance from the Audi RS Q e-tron pair who were separated by 3:44. It was a sterling effort from Ekström who started the day 23rd on the road, two places behind Peterhansel.
Sebastian Loeb/Fabian Lurquin, chasing their first win, rocketed away into the lead, three minutes up on the overall leader Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz’s Audi, exactly where they needed to be as they approached the transfer section which split the stage in two.
Once back up to speed, Loeb still held the lead with three minutes in hand over Sainz. Guerlain Chicherit/Alex Winocq held a solid third with Sainz and Peterhansel in fourth and fifth. Lucas Moraes/Armand Monleon, Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz and Giniel de Villiers/Dennis Murphy followed in a Toyota Gazoo Racing train, a few minutes apart.
At km 390, disaster struck Loeb, who got lost for 10 minutes, dropping to 10th in the stage ranking. Chicherit was the meat in an Audi sandwich, Ekström in the lead by 2½ minutes.
As the cars approached Ha’il, Peterhansel had passed Chicherit for an Audi one-two, with Loeb losing 6 minutes to Sainz who was fourth in the stage. Five Toyota Hiluxes filled fifth to ninth, with Quintero heading the TGR squad from Guillaume De Meuvis, Moraes, and Romain Dumas in his Rebellion Hilux, de Villiers and Loeb rounding out the top 10.
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Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel stopped their Prodrive Hunter at km 62 with engine problems and were waiting for their rapid service truck
Stage 8 result:
Ekström, Peterhansel (+3:44), Chicherit (+3:44)
Overall standings: Sainz, Loeb (+24:47), Moraes (+1:05:07)
Dakar’s bike race game of cat and mouse continued into stage 8 on Tuesday, as leader Ricky Brabec came home seventh ahead of closest rival Ross Branch in eighth to keep the overall lead gap between them within a minute. While Brabec led throughout the morning, he faded later in the day to allow the Benavides brothers, Kevin’s KTM to take the 458 km race to Ha’il from Luciano on a Husqvarna.
Honda rider, Californian Brabec was in flying form over the first 400 km of the day ahead of a fraught battle for second. That saw teammates Chilean Pablo Quintanilla and Frenchman Adrien van Beveren fighting over the place, with the Benavides brothers and Branch keeping them honest. Van Beveren was however ahead of Brabec at the penultimate waypoint, with Kevin Benavides third. (Bike report by Motorsport Media)
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