Dakar 2022: Desert dunes dominate landscape on Stage 8

Bengaluru, January 11: Though Sweden's Mattias Ekstrom won Stage 8 of FIA Dakar Rally 2022, Nasser Al Attiyah still holds the edge as the ace Qatari has a 37min, 58sec lead over Frenchman Sebastien Loeb with four legs and 1,172kms to go.

On Monday (January 10), the Dakar 2022 convoy was plunged into a 200kms chain of desert dunes at the beginning of Stage 8.

Navigation challenges came thick and fast on the stage, which ended up measuring a total 394kms. Plus there was also 434kms of liaison to be covered, making this the longest day of the world's toughest rally.

Dakar 2022: Ekstrom wins Stage 8; Loeb reduces gap with Al Attiyah Dakar 2022: Ekstrom wins Stage 8; Loeb reduces gap with Al Attiyah

The timed special stage between Al Dawadimi and Wadi Ad Dawasir will long be remembered by Ekstrom and his co-driver Emil Bergkvist. Stage 8 saw the Swedish duo take their first-ever win and gave the Audi RS Q e-tron the second stage win of its fledgling Dakar career.

"I enjoyed the ride and Emil did fantastic navigation the whole stage," said Ekstrom.

Audi 1-2

Audi Sport's positive start to the second week of the most-demanding off-road races in the planet continues with France's 14-time winner and defending champion Stephane Peterhansel and Spain's rally legend Carlos Sainz joining Ekstrom among the best performers on Stage 8.

"It's a pleasure to drive this car and we're all working hard to improve the performance," said Peterhansel, who finished just 49sec behind his Audi team-mate Ekstrom.

Loeb back in hunt

Nine-time World Rally Championship (WRC) winner Loeb had led the stage in his BRX Hunter at various points, but eventually had to settle for the day's third fastest time. The result brings him seven minutes closer to race leader Al Attiyah.

"We pushed really hard from the start until the end. We wanted to stay ahead and not have Nasser following," said the WRC legend.

Al Attiyah holds aces

Three-time Dakar Rally champion Al Attiyah still maintains a healthy lead over Loeb. The Qatari's Toyota Hilux T1 had a technical snag which derailed his progress in Stage 8, a possible sign that anything can still happen at the Dakar. "We only had front wheel drive for the last 350kms of the stage. I was scared we would get more problems, but then decided to push for the last 50kms. In the end we lost only 7min from Seb," said Al Attiyah, the Dakar champion in 2011, 2015 and 2019.

Poland's Kuba Przygonski is up to fourth overall in the car race. The off-roader has recorded five Top 10 finishes at the Dakar in a distinguished career spread over both the bike and car races. A podium finish still eludes him and the MINI JCW Buggy driver will be pushing to make that happen in the coming days.

Mountains and canons

Briton Sam Sunderland reclaimed the bike lead with victory in Stage 8 while the Russian Roulette continued in trucks section with Dmitry Sotnikov winning his third stage of the rally to extend his advantage over team-mates Eduard Nikolaev and Anton Shibalov.

Tuesday's (January 11) Stage 9 will be a 287kms loop around the Wadi Ad Dawasir bivouac featuring a mass of mountains and canyons. Navigation, already a key theme of this year's Dakar, will feature heavily once again.

After nine days of racing, Dakar 2022 has reached an exciting phase with the ceremonial finish scheduled to be held in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on Friday (January 14). Buck up guys!

(With Red Bull /Team BRX Media inputs)