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Dakar Rally: Nasser Al-Attiyah leads, Yazeed Al-Rajhi wins stage

Nasser Al-Attiyah maintained his Dakar Rally lead at eight minutes as the event reached its rest day, with fellow World Rally Championship regular Yazeed Al-Rajhi scoring his first stage win

Giniel de Villiers had carved three minutes out of Al-Attiyah's lead on stage seven on Saturday, and made further gains early on stage eight, helped by his X-raid Mini driver stopping to change a wheel after a puncture

But Al-Attiyah was able to peg the Imperial Toyota back late on the stage, with de Villiers frustrated by a low-flying helicopter affecting his vision.

Al-Attiyah therefore maintained his outright cushion at 8m27s heading into Monday's break.

The run back from Uyuni to Iquique was split into three: an initial 293-mile run - much of it flat-out on salt flats - followed by a 170-mile neutralised section then a final 24-mile sprint to the finish.

It formed the second leg of a 'marathon' stage with Saturday's special, with crews unable to call on team assistance through the weekend and not returning to the service bivouac until Sunday night.

Dakar rookie Al-Rajhi consolidated his current third place overall by claiming his maiden stage win in his Toyota, beating Orlando Terranova by 1m12s. Al-Attiyah and de Villiers were next up.

Stephane Peterhansel was the top Peugeot in seventh, keeping him in eighth place on the outright leaderboard.

LEADING STAGE EIGHT TIMES:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Yazeed Al-Rajhi Yazeed Racing Toyota 3h26m49.s
2 Orlando Terranova Monster Energy Rally Raid Team Mini/BMW 1m12.s
3 Nasser Al-Attiyah Qatar Rally Team Mini/BMW 2m36.s
4 Giniel de Villiers Toyota Imperial Team South Africa Toyota 2m49.s
5 Krzysztof Holowczyc Monster Energy Rally Raid Team Mini/BMW 3m12.s
6 Nani Roma Monster Energy Rally Raid Team Mini/BMW 3m24.s
7 Stephane Peterhansel Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 3m46.s
8 Vladimir Vasilyev Vasilyev Racing Team Mini/BMW 6m00.s
9 Boris Garafulic Team X-Raid Gmbh Mini/BMW 10m09.s
10 Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi Petrobras Mitsubishi 11m17.s

LEADING OVERALL STANDINGS AFTER STAGE EIGHT:

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