Dakar Stage 8: Ekstrom and Benavides prevail, rider dies

Mattias Ekstrom, who was 23rd to start, has produced the best time on the special and picks up his fifth victory in the Dakar Rally. It was his second win this year, along with his triumph in the prologue.

Stéphane Peterhansel was second for Audi ahead of Guerlain Chicherit, who has finished 4m10s behind the Swede.

Overall leader Carlos Sainz Sr. was 4th, giving Audi three cars in the top 4.

Bikes

Red Bull KTM’s Kevin Benavides has won Stage 8 of the 2024 Dakar Rally while Ricky Brabec extended his overall Bikes lead to 42 seconds.

Benavides’ stage victory was his and KTM’s second of the event, this time by a 31-second margin over brother Luciano of sister team Husqvarna Factory Racing.

Today’s stage saw riders travel north from Al Duwadimi to Ha’il with a 125 km road section before sandy tracks and big difficult dunes that would play a part of the 458 km special stage. Entering a non-timed transfer zone of 179 km this would then take them back against the clock at the 344 km mark of the special, as the change to stony terrain would take them ever closer to the arrival point in the shadows of the Shammar mountain range.

Starting just behind his main rival on stage eight, Ricky Brabec pulled out the stops to lead most of the day increasing the gap at one point to over three minutes over Branch, but after 400 km of the special he had dropped behind his teammate Adrien Van Beveren that lost him time in the final 50 kms to end the day in seventh. Having caught Branch early on he rode with him for the majority of the day not letting the Botswanan out of his sights as he opened up his overall standings lead to 42 seconds.

Rider succumbs to injuries

The TwinTrail Racing Team confirmed the death of Carles Falcón following a serious accident in the second stage of the Dakar Rally.

Falcón suffered a cerebral oedema due to the fracture of the C2 vertebra, as well as five ribs, the left wrist and the collarbone.

AutoRacing1.com sends condolences to his family and friends.

Dakar Stage 8 Cars Results

Pos.	No.	Drive-Team	Team	Time	Behind
1	207	(Swe) Mattias Ekström (Swe) Emil Bergkvist	Team Audi Sport	03H 17′ 15”
2	202	(Fra) Stéphane Peterhansel (Fra) Edouard Boulanger	Team Audi Sport	03H 20′ 00”	+ 00H 02′ 45”
3	211	(Fra) Guerlain Chicherit (Fra) Alex Winocq	Overdrive Racing	03H 20′ 25”	+ 00H 03′ 10”
4	204	(Esp) Carlos Sainz (Esp) Lucas Cruz	Team Audi Sport	03H 22′ 28”	+ 00H 05′ 13”
5	216	(Usa) Seth Quintero (Deu) Dennis Zenz	Toyota Gazoo Racing	03H 25′ 07”	+ 00H 07′ 52”
6	221	(Bel) Guillaume De Mevius (Fra) Xavier Panseri	Overdrive Racing	03H 25′ 56”	+ 00H 08′ 41”
7	206	(Bra) Lucas Moraes (Esp) Armand Monleon	Toyota Gazoo Racing	03H 27′ 06”	+ 00H 09′ 51”
8	231	(Fra) Romain Dumas (Fra) Max Delfino	Rebellion Racing	03H 27′ 26”	+ 00H 10′ 11”
9	209	(Zaf) Giniel De Villiers (Zaf) Dennis Murphy	Toyota Gazoo Racing	03H 27′ 33”	+ 00H 10′ 18”
10	203	(Fra) Sebastien Loeb (Bel) Fabian Lurquin	Bahrain Raid Xtreme	03H 28′ 15”	+ 00H 11′ 00”

Dakar Cars Overall Standings

Pos.	No.	Drive-Team	Team	Time	Behind
1	204	(Esp) Carlos Sainz (Esp) Lucas Cruz	Team Audi Sport	33H 29′ 10”
2	203	(Fra) Sebastien Loeb (Bel) Fabian Lurquin	Bahrain Raid Xtreme	33H 53′ 57”	+ 00H 24′ 47”
3	206	(Bra) Lucas Moraes (Esp) Armand Monleon	Toyota Gazoo Racing	34H 34′ 23”	+ 01H 05′ 13”
4	221	(Bel) Guillaume De Mevius (Fra) Xavier Panseri	Overdrive Racing	35H 03′ 28”	+ 01H 34′ 18”
5	209	(Zaf) Giniel De Villiers (Zaf) Dennis Murphy	Toyota Gazoo Racing	35H 14′ 22”	+ 01H 45′ 12”
6	211	(Fra) Guerlain Chicherit (Fra) Alex Winocq	Overdrive Racing	35H 25′ 47”	+ 01H 56′ 37”
7	208	(Cze) Martin Prokop (Cze) Viktor Chytka	Orlen Jipocar Team	35H 30′ 33”	+ 02H 01′ 23”
8	212	(Fra) Mathieu Serradori (Fra) Loic Minaudier	Century Racing Factory Team	35H 32′ 25”	+ 02H 03′ 15”
9	243	(Zaf) Guy David Botterill (Zaf) Brett Cummings	Toyota Gazoo Racing	35H 53′ 14”	+ 02H 24′ 04”
10	223	(Ltu) Benediktas Vanagas (Est) Kuldar Sikk	Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics	36H 03′ 34”	+ 02H 34′ 24”

Dakar Stage 8 Bikes Results

Pos.	No.	Rider	Team	Time	Behind
1	47	(Arg) Kevin Benavides	Red Bull Ktm Factory Racing	03H 35′ 03”
2	1	(Arg) Luciano Benavides	Husqvarna Factory Racing	03H 35′ 34”	+ 00H 00′ 31”
3	42	(Fra) Adrien Van Beveren	Monster Energy Honda Team	03H 36′ 30”	+ 00H 01′ 27”
4	11	(Chl) Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo	Monster Energy Honda Team	03H 36′ 44”	+ 00H 01′ 41”
5	2	(Aus) Toby Price	Red Bull Ktm Factory Racing	03H 37′ 21”	+ 00H 02′ 18”
6	19	(Prt) Rui Gonçalves	Sherco Rally Factory	03H 37′ 27”	+ 00H 02′ 24”
7	9	(Usa) Ricky Brabec	Monster Energy Honda Team	03H 39′ 11”	+ 00H 04′ 08”
8	46	(Bwa) Ross Branch	Hero Motosports Team Rally	03H 39′ 52”	+ 00H 04′ 49”
9	5	(Aus) Daniel Sanders	Red Bull Gasgas Factory Racing	03H 40′ 13”	+ 00H 05′ 10”
10	142	(Svk) Stefan Svitko	Slovnaft Rally Team	03H 40′ 31”	+ 00H 05′ 28”

Dakar Bikes Overall Standings

Pos.	No.	Rider	Team	Time	Behind
1	9	(Usa) Ricky Brabec	Monster Energy Honda Team	36H 16′ 31”
2	46	(Bwa) Ross Branch	Hero Motosports Team Rally	36H 17′ 13”	+ 00H 00′ 42”
3	11	(Chl) Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo	Monster Energy Honda Team	36H 20′ 52”	+ 00H 04′ 21”
4	42	(Fra) Adrien Van Beveren	Monster Energy Honda Team	36H 28′ 29”	+ 00H 11′ 58”
5	47	(Arg) Kevin Benavides	Red Bull Ktm Factory Racing	36H 37′ 02”	+ 00H 20′ 31”
6	2	(Aus) Toby Price	Red Bull Ktm Factory Racing	36H 45′ 41”	+ 00H 29′ 10”
7	5	(Aus) Daniel Sanders	Red Bull Gasgas Factory Racing	36H 55′ 14”	+ 00H 38′ 43”
8	1	(Arg) Luciano Benavides	Husqvarna Factory Racing	36H 56′ 06”	+ 00H 39′ 35”
9	142	(Svk) Stefan Svitko	Slovnaft Rally Team	37H 28′ 24”	+ 01H 11′ 53”
10	23	(Cze) Martin Michek	Orion – Moto Racing Group	38H 13′ 24”	+ 01H 56′ 53”