Upon arrival at the dunes and with the requirement of navigation, the Qatari Nasser Al Attiyah broke the dominance of the Peugeot and won the eighth stage, ahead of the Spanish Carlos Sainz and the French Stephane Peterhansel, who regained the leadership of the test after an accident of Sebastien Loeb.
After six victories and absolute dominance of the French brand, the defending champion gave Mini his first victory with a time of 6h.32: 23, 12 seconds ahead of the Madrid and with a 31 advantage over ‘Monsieur Dakar ‘.
«I am very happy to win my first stage that had everything: dunes, off-piste, camel grass. I know the Peugeot are very fast but the next two stages will be decisive. The difference of 14 minutes is not very big and I have come here to win the Dakar again, “said the Qatari.
For his part, Loeb had a marked delay after getting stuck in the sand, and then had an accident in which he did several turns of the bell eleven kilometers from the end of the special.
Although both Loeb and Daniel Elena are in perfect condition, the Peugeot was very deteriorated and after repairing it they were able to reach the finish line at 1:08:09 behind the Qatari leader, to remain in eighth position overall.
This situation leaves Loeb out of the fight for the title after a great start that had him for much of the race as the leader in his first experience on the Dakar.
“The remarkable fact of the day is that Seb has turned the bell 20 kilometers from the finish. We reached it when we had been about 100 kilometers, we doubled it and then it got ahead of us again trying to make up for time, “said Peterhansel.
“On an off-piste on a dry bed where we were going at about 120 km / h, he followed a large channel and, when I arrived about 20 seconds later, his car had overturned. They have beckoned us to move on. They were both out of the vehicle, so they are fine, but the car has suffered some damage. By wanting to make up for lost time, you have made a mistake. It is much less comfortable for the team to have only two cars in front ”, completed the race leader.
In this new scenario Peterhansel again takes the lead of the event with 2:09 minutes ahead of Sainz and 14:43 in relation to Al Attiyah.
For his part, Frenchman Cyril Despres achieved his best performance in cars with Peugeot by guaranteeing fourth place, just ahead of the Mini of Finn Mikko Hirvonen, Spaniard Nani Roma and Argentine Orlando Terranova.
“Every day has its difficulties but today was a typical Dakar test. Today’s second special I had a problem with the central differential that penalized me a lot, “said the native of Folgueroles.
Among motorcycles, the Australian Toby Price (KTM) is the new leader of the general classification after winning the eighth stage this Monday, ahead of the first one so far, the Portuguese Paulo Gonçalves (Honda).
Price reached the finish line with a 5:17-minute lead over Gonçalves, now second overall at 2:05 behind the Australian.
With five stages remaining for the end of this edition of the Dakar, the 28-year-old Australian and the 36-year-old Portuguese are shaping up to go head-to-head in the search for the title.
Everything is never perfect. I have made some mistakes, but I have been lucky in choosing the course. In the end it was a good day because I finished with the best time. Tomorrow we face another marathon stage. We will have to pay attention to the bike so as not to damage it and to be able to fix it on the second day, “said the Australian Price.
«With Paulo we go a bit to the brawl. One day one buys time, another day the other? In the end it will be a matter of minutes, or maybe seconds, until the last day, “added the Australian.
Regarding the brands, KTM will seek, after the withdrawal of its last emblem, the Spanish Marc Coma, to maintain its hegemony of the last 14 editions, while Honda will hunt for an achievement that it has not achieved since 1989.
“It was a difficult day, with very rough off-piste sections. At a time when I was going quite fast I leaned a little to the side and I went to the ground. I have not done anything physical, but the navigation tower of the bike has been damaged. I had to finish with one hand so that the cables did not pull out completely, but in the end I have not wasted much time with respect to Toby “, said the Portuguese.
The third place in the stage, which joined the Argentine cities of Salta and Belén, with a 393-kilometer special, went to Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna), 6:32 behind the winner.
They were followed by Slovak Stefan Svitko (KTM), who remains in third place overall at 14:14, and Argentine Kevin Benavides (Honda).
The Portuguese Helder Rodríguez (Yamaha), the Spanish Gerard Farres (KTM), the French Meo Antoine (KTM), the also Spanish Juan Pedrero (Sherko) and the Dutch Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) completed the first ten on this day, the first after Sunday’s break in Salta.
After the third place in the general classification of the Slovak Stefan Svitko, the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla and the Argentine Kevin Benavides compete to be the best Latin American in the event.
«It was a stage divided into two parts, one jumps and the other in Bethlehem. The first part very well, with more roads, and the second already with a lot of navigation, sand, stones. The truth is that it is quite hard, very difficult, ”Benavides said.
«It was a very demanding stage but I am very happy with the level that we were able to demonstrate. I trust that this bike will take me where I want to go, “stated Quintanilla.
Among the Spanish Armand Monleon (KTM) was eleventh, Jordi Viladoms (KTM) fifteenth and Laia Sanz (KTM) was nineteenth.
In the quad category, the leadership did not change his last name but his name because Marcos Patronelli won the stage with 5:42 minutes of advantage over his brother Alejandro.
In this way, Marcos took the number one overall with an advantage of 2:06 minutes over Alejandro by storm, and widened the important difference over the Peruvian Alexis Hernández, which is now 32:50 minutes.
Finally among the trucks, the Dutch Gerard De Rooy prevailed in the eighth stage and took the general classification by storm with his Iveco.
Behind, and almost in a sprint to pose a tough fight, the Kamaz begin to appear with the Russians Eduard Nikolaev and Andrey Karginov in second and third place today.
In the general classification, Nikolaev is located 7:58 minutes behind the Dutch leader and then the Dutch of Man continue: Pieter Versluis and Hans Stacey. EFE
Al Attiyah returns in the dunes and Loeb says goodbye to the title after a turnaround
