Stage Eight of the Dakar Rally

The eighth stage of the Dakar Rally saw two past Dakar winners winning their first stages in this year's race.

Nasser Al-Attiyah won his first stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally today by a minute and twelve seconds over his Mini teammate Stéphane Peterhansel. Carlos Sainz finished two minutes and thirty-six seconds back in third. Orlando Terranova finished fourth, six minutes and forty-seconds back with Krzysztof Holowczyc another a minute and nine seconds back. Nani Roma finished sixth, nine minutes and nineteen seconds back with Giniel de Villiers two seconds behind him.

BJ Baldwin had his best stage of this year's Dakar by finishing eighteen minutes and forty-nine seconds back of Al-Attiyah in fourteenth place. Baldwin is over twelve hours back in the overall standings in thirty-third place. Robby Gordon finished fifty-seventh on the day, an hour fifteen minutes and fifty-four seconds back. Gordon has dropped to twenty-sixth place overall, eight hours forty-nine minutes and fifty seconds back.

Roma holds a twenty-three minutes and forty-six lead over Peterhansel with de Villiers third, forty-eight minutes and twenty-five seconds back. Terranova is fourth, fifty-one minutes and fifty-five seconds back after a fifteen minute penalty. Al-Attiyah and Sainz remain fourth and fifth, both over an hour back of Roma.

Cyril Despres won his first stage by two minutes and nine seconds over three-time stage winner in this year's race Joan Barreda Bort. Six seconds back of Barreda Bort was the class leader Marc Coma. Coma has a thirty-eight minute and eight second lead over Barreda Bort. Jordi Viladoms is third in class, making it all-Spanish top three. Viladoms is an hour twenty-seven minutes and twenty-two minutes. Despres moves up to ninth but is still two hours twenty-three minutes and fifty-eight seconds off Coma.

After retroactively being named the winner of stage six after a time deduction, Ignacio Casale has won three consecutive stages after defeating Sebastian Husseini by eight minutes and thirty-eight seconds. Sergio Lafuente was third, fifteen minutes and twenty-five seconds back with Rafal Sonik thirty-nine seconds off the Uruguayan. Casale extends his overall lead in class to twenty-one minutes and forty-seconds over Lafuente with Sonik forty-five minutes and fifty-six seconds back. Husseini is over three and a half hours back in fourth.

Andrey Karginov picked up his second stage victory of this Dakar Rally by five minutes and fifteen seconds over Gérard de Rooy. Dmitry Sotnikov finished third six minutes and fifty-five seconds back. De Rooy maintains the lead in the truck class by thirty-two minutes and thirty-five seconds over Karginov. Ednuard Nikolaev is third, over an hour back with Sotnikov just over eleven minutes back of him in fourth.