After playing it safe in the first half of the marathon stage yesterday, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Nasser Al-Attiyah is back with another P1 finish. And, what’s staggering about this is that he finished P1, his fourth in the 2021 Dakar, despite getting a puncture early on in the stage. Carlos Sainz of the X-Raid Mini JCW team finished at P2, a mere 52 seconds behind, with current overall leader and teammate Stephane Peterhansel taking P3.
Stage 7 winner Yazeed Al Rajhi couldn’t replicate yesterday's result due to mechanical problems 193km into the stage, and lost approximately an hour in mending his Overdrive Toyota’s Hilux. Nani Roma of team BRX couldn’t manage a top 10 finish, but continues to hold on to P5 in overall rankings. Sebastian Loeb however isn’t getting the result he wants and after encountering mechanical problems again around 43km into the stage, his current objective today was to reach the bivouac and mend the Hunter.
General rankings after Stage 8
The top five spots in the general ranking remain unchanged after today's stage. So, Stephane Peterhansel of the X-Raid Mini JCW team continues to stay at P1 with Nasser Al-Attiyah hot on his tail. Nasser’s stellar driving today helped him close the gap by 3:03 minutes. Carlos Sainz in P3 also reduced his gap by 2:51 minutes. Jakub Przygonski of Orlen Team/Overdrive with his consistent top-10 finishes (except Stage 3 where he finished P11) is in P4 in overall rankings and Nani Roma is in P5.
Tomorrow’s stage will be the second and final loop stage in the 2021 Dakar Rally. The competitors will traverse a total of 574km of which the special stage will be 465km long. The stage will begin at the shore of the Red Sea and will be filled with tracks with dense sand where competitors won’t necessarily be able to go flat out. The stage is also touted to be amongst the toughest ones.
Follow our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter handles and our Motorsport section for regular updates on the 2021 Dakar Rally.