Mattias Ekström was the winner of the eighth stage of the Dakar 2024 in cars. This Monday, the Audi driver who suffered an irreparable delay yesterday due to an incident, came out on top in a battle with teammate Stéphane Peterhansel.
Initially, Sébastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme/Prodrive Hunter) set the pace, but he fell behind in the second part of the special while Ekström was recovering and ended up fighting for the victory with Peterhansel, beating the veteran by 2m45s. The Swede was still subject to a one-minute penalty.
In third place was Guerlain Chicherit (Overdrive Racing/Toyota) at 3m10s, followed by Carlos Sainz (Audi) and Seth Quintero (Toyota) in the top five. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Nasser Racing) suffered another misfortune, this time with an engine problem after 62km, which forced him to abandon the race.
In the overall classification, Sainz gained more time in the lead, now having a 24m47s advantage over Loeb. Lucas Moraes (Toyota) is in third place, already 1h05m13s behind, and the top five is completed by Guillaume de Mevius (Overdrive Racing/Toyota) and Giniel de Villiers (Toyota).
Top ten of Stage 8:
Top ten overall: