Before tackling the desert of dunes of the final straight of the Dakar-2025, the South African Henk Lategan (Toyota) consolidated his first place in the provisional general car classification by winning the 8th stage, won by the Argentinian Luciano Benavides on a motorbike.
The 30-year-old South African, this is his fourth Dakar and who had already won the prologue, completed the 487km special between Al Duwadimi and the capital Riyadh in Saudi Arabia in 4h 51min 54sec.
He thus increases his lead over the Saudi Yazeed al-Rajhi to 05min 41sec.
Despite a two-minute penalty for speeding, Lategan maintained a lead of 1min 47sec 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 (Century).
The last heavyweight in the race after the retirements of Sainz and Loeb, the Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah arrived 12min 17sec behind Henk Lategan and is now fourth at 34min 14sec in the provisional general classification.
“A very difficult day. When we had to open it was difficult. Yazeed (al-Rajhi) was able to follow our tracks and when he overtook us we followed him before going back in front of him in the dunes, but again it was difficult. I’m happy to finish this day, four more days”declared al-Attiyah, winner of five Dakars including the last four.
The 9th stage on Tuesday will launch the competitors towards the Empty Quarter desert, in the dunes of which the famous rally-raid will see the outcome of its 47th edition on Friday.
Time recredited
Daniel Sanders in the 8th stage of the Dakar-2025 between Al Duwadimi and Ryad, January 13 / Valery HACHE / AFP
In motorcycle racing, Monday’s stage was won by Argentinian Luciano Benavides (KTM) with a 2min 08sec lead over Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren (Honda).
In the provisional general classification, the Australian Daniel Sanders (KTM) remains in the lead with 11min 03sec ahead of the Spaniard Tosha Schareina (Honda), who came third in today’s special.
In this category, 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 that fell it was quite nice. And afterwards, we still had a lot of dust and that was difficult”described the 29-year-old Spaniard.
21min 31sec behind the Australian leader, Van Beveren currently occupies third place in the provisional general classification.
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