Sainz is stripped of victory in the stage of the Dakar rally, the best result for Loeb - Motoru sports - Sportacentrs.com

After the changes to the race course, today the participants rode the 822.94 km long road from Ad Dawadimi to Riyadh, measuring 346 km with time count. We remind you that the seventh stage for the motorcycle and quadricycle classes did not take place, but for the others it was modified. After the rest day, there will be six more stages.

In today’s car class, Sainz beat Sébastien Loeb by a minute and a half, but received a five-minute penalty for speeding in the restricted area, which dropped him to third position. Race leader Nasser El-Attiyah was second, over two minutes behind Loeb. It must be said that the athletes ran a two-day marathon, which meant that external technical assistance was not permitted.

In the overall standings, the Toyota factory team drivers still occupy the first two places. El-Attiyah is more than an hour ahead of Hank Lategan, while third place is held by Lucas Moraes, who drives a Toyota Overdrive pick-up. Loeb, who had previously suffered several failures, has now moved up to fourth place, losing nearly two hours to the leader.

Aleš Loprais increased his lead in the heavy vehicle class. In stage eight, the Czech rider’s crew was only third fastest, while Martin Macik won, with Mitchell van der Brink second. Martin van den Brink, who was just two minutes behind Loprice, lost almost 18 minutes against today’s winner, keeping second place in the overall standings, but already losing much more.

A very intense battle for victory is underway in the motorcycle class, with Husqvarna factory rider Skyler Howes currently leading, but both Kevin Benavides and Mason Klein lose by 1 minute 13 seconds. Plus, many other athletes are still realistically claiming victory. In the eighth stage, the best was the rider of the “Hero” team, Ross Branch, who beat Daniel Sanders and Klein by over three minutes.

Joao Ferreira was fastest in the T3 category, but Guillaume de Mevius still holds the lead, with Austin Jones now just three minutes behind him. This time, Roks Bacjuška remained out of the “Top 10”, but kept the lead in the general classification of the T4 class. Closest chaser, Mareks Goczals, is currently losing just four and a half minutes. Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli was fastest in stage eight. Manuel Anduhar won the quadricycle class, but Alexandre Giroux still holds the leader honor.

The race will continue on Tuesday, when the riders will cover 710km from Riyadh to Harad, with a timed 439km speed stage.