Henk Lategan (Toyota) won the 8th stage of the Dakar 2025 rally in Saudi Arabia on Monday, 487km between Al Duwadimi and the capital Riyadh completed in 4h51:54, and thus consolidated his first place in the provisional general classification.
The 30-year-old South African, this is his fourth Dakar and who had already won the prologue, thus increases his lead over the Saudi Yazeed al-Rajhi to 5'41. Despite a two-minute penalty for speeding, Lategan maintained a 1'47 lead in the 8th stage over his compatriot Guy Botterill (Toyota) who was in the lead for a long time before giving in in the final sprint.
Frenchman Mathieu Serradori (Century) prevented a 100% South African stage podium by finishing in third place, five seconds ahead of another South African, Brian Baragwanath. The last heavyweight in the race after the retirements of Sainz and Loeb, the Qatari quadruple title holder Nasser al-Attiyah arrived 12'17 behind Henk Lategan and is now fourth at 34'14 in the provisional ranking.
Benavides devant Van Beveren
For his part, the Argentinian Luciano Benavides (KTM) won the 8th stage on his motorbike with a 2'08 lead over the Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren (Honda). In the provisional general classification, the Australian Daniel Sanders (KTM) remains in the lead with 11'03 ahead of the Spaniard Tosha Schareina (Honda), who came third in today's special.
The name of the winner of the 8th stage gave rise to uncertainty for a few hours due to the stop of Bevanides and Van Beveren with the biker Pablo Quintanilla on the route.
During a fall at km 133, the Chilean injured his shoulder and was forced to retire. After calculation, the stoppage time was credited back to Benavides and Van Beveren, putting them ahead of Tosha Schareina who had set the best time of the stage.
“I tried to attack well at the start and from the refueling point, there were several of us riding. The first part was sandy, but with the rain falling it was quite nice. And afterward, we still had a lot of dust and that was difficult“, described the 29-year-old Spaniard. 21'31sec behind the Australian leader, Van Beveren currently occupies third place in the provisional general classification.
