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:
-Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments