It took Sébastien Loeb a long time to set up his tent to rest, but he managed and it seems he’s slept peacefully awaiting another stage win at the Dakar. It was a surprise for the Frenchman, who watched Carlos Sainz tighten the bolts on his injured Audi to set the best pace of the day, a futile feat after stewards handed him a five-minute speed limit penalty had. Another negative twist on his ill-fated turnout. The Madrid rider, who has nothing left to lose and does not count towards overall victory, dominated the eighth stage but again had no prize after being caught at 70km/h in a 30km/h zone.
It was the second day of the half marathon stage improvised by the organization, with departure and arrival at Al Duwadimi, a camp flooded a few days ago where the participants slept last night without comfort. Some set up the tents in the catering tent or in the press center (this is Sainz’s case), while others, like Loeb, prefer to sleep outside. “That’s not my thing, what can I tell you,” the Frenchman said ironically as he tried to pitch his tent on the mud. “Do we have pickaxes?” It was another twist in the toughest Dakar ever, as the actual marathon (without any technical support whatsoever) takes place in the middle of nowhere next Thursday and Friday.
Loeb won his Toyota with a time of 3h 34m 24s ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah (+2m 11s), who was pushing knowing the mechanics will have time after a long connection to Riyadh tonight and a rest day tomorrow to leave spotless. The overall leader is more than an hour clear of Henk Lategan, his teammate and top pursuer after the rally reaches its halfway point. The Frenchman from the BRX, the only one of the remaining favorites still waiting with his rod, takes 1h 52m 06s.
The beatings of the past few days have punished everyone, but especially Sainz and his co-driver Lucas Cruz. “After we slept in the tent last night and barely four hours the day before, it will do us good to rest in the hotel,” said the Madrid native. They covered 2,604 km in three days, 1,036 of which were timed. They also spent almost eight hours motionless in the middle of the desert, waiting for the assistance truck after an accident and saying goodbye to overall victory in stage six and helping their teammate Mattias Ekstrom’s car in assistance in seventh. “The balance sheet of the first week, complicated. A bit disappointed with how it went for the whole Audi team, with the problems Stéphane and I had, Mattias’s… The only thing we can do is keep going,” he concluded.
Howes retains lead at Motos
Ross Branch (Hero) won the stage in the motorcycle category with a time of 3h46m18s ahead of Daniel Sanders (GasGas) and Mason Klein (KTM) who received a two-minute penalty and lost the overall lead. Skylar Howes (Husqvarna) holds the reference position with 1:13 minutes ahead of Kevin Benavides and Klein. Joan Barreda lost 12.5 minutes after starting fourth in the eighth special. Both he and his teammates who opened the course (Luciano Benavides, Howes and Toby Price) lost significant time compared to the runners who later followed their tracks.
The man from Castellón drops to eighth overall, 8:21 behind the leader. Lorenzo Santolino, a 35-year-old from Salamanca who finished sixth in 2021, is twelfth in the standings with 31:22 and is trying to join Dammam in the top ten riders at the event.
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