Click it and Unblock the Notifications
Dakar 2024 Stage 8 Results: Noah Creates History As KTM's Benavides & Audi's Ekstrom Win
KTM's Kevin Benavides and Audi's Mattias Ekstrom took victory at Stage 8 of Dakar 2024. Today's stage was a historic one for India with Harith Noah taking the win in the Rally 2 Motorcycle class, the first competitor from the country to do so.
Stage 8 of Dakar 2028 saw competitors travel from Al Duwadimi to Hail, a distance of 678 kilometres. Today's stage featured a 458km timed special that saw terrain changes from sand dunes to stony, rugged terrain.
Bikes
The Benavides brothers were at it again today with KTM's Kevin ending Stage 8 in first place, beating his brother Husqvarna's Luciano to the top spot of the podium. Kevin, the defending Dakar champion ended the special in 03:35:03.
Luciano, the defending World Rally Raid Champion, ended the special stage just 31 seconds behind the KTM ridden by his brother. The final podium spot was claimed by Honda's Adrien Van Beveren. The French rider ended the stage, 01:27 behind KTM's Benavides.
Hero's Ross Branch, lost a bit of time to Honda's American rider Ricky Brabec in the overall standing with the rider from Botswana ending the day in 8th, 41 seconds behind his Honda rival and 04:49 behind the KTM riding winner.
The two Sherco riders grabbed the eyeballs today at Dakar 2024. Portugal's Rui Goncalves ended Stage 8 in a brilliant sixth place, 02;24 behind the KTM of Kevin Benavides.
However, it was India's Harith Noah who made history today at the Dakar. While he finished 11th overall, Noah was the fastest of the Rally 2 category riders, ending the day in 03:42:12, 07:09 behind Benavides. Noah led the Rally 2 category from the very first waypoint today to becoming the only Indian competitor at Dakar to take a stage win in any category.
In the overall rankings, Honda's Ricky Brabec continues to lead with a time of 36:16:31. Brabec extended his lead over Hero's Ross Branch by 41 seconds today and is now 42 seconds ahead of the rider from Botswana. The final podium spot in the overall standings is in the hands of Honda's Nacho Florimo, who has already claimed three stage wins at this year's Dakar.
Harith Noah is the higher-ranked of the two Sherco riders at Dakar 2024. The TVS Sherco rider from Kerala is 02:19:33 behind Brabec in 13th place. In the Rally 2 Class standings, Noah sits third overall in Rally 2 and is just 8:53 behind class leader Dumontier and just 2:40 behind second-placed Jeanloup Lepan. Sherco's Rui Gonclaves is 26th overall.
Cars
Audi blitzed the sands of Saudi Arabia today with all three drivers finishing in the top 4 after Sebastien Loeb lost quite a bit of time at the end of the day after leading for most of the stage.
It was the Audi of Mattias Ekstrom that led the German manufacturer's trio of hybrid rally racers. The Swede claimed victory with a time of 03:17:15, despite a 60-second penalty.
Two minutes and 45 seconds behind Ekstrom was Mr Dakar, Stephane Peterhansel himself with the French Dakar legend ending up in the runner-up spot today. Rounding off the podium was Guerlain Chicherit.
The Frenchman piloted his Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux across the line to end up third in the timesheets today. Chicherit ended the stage, three minutes and 10 seconds behind Ekstrom's Audi.
In fourth place, five minutes and 13 seconds behind his Swedish teammate was El Matador himself. Despite not being on the podium, Carlos Sainz ended the stage well clear of his rival for overall victory, Sebastien Loeb.
The French WRC legend ended the stage in 10th, 11 minutes off the pace set by Ekstrom. As a result, Sainz now leads Loeb by 24:47 in the overall standings. Sainz has set an overall time of 33:29:10 after eight stages of racing. The final podium spot is held by Lucas Moraes from Toyota. The Brazilian driver is 01:05:13 behind Sainz.
Thoughts About Dakar 2024 Stage 8
Stage 8 of Dakar 2024 saw Harith Noah create history, becoming the first Indian to claim a stage win in any category after ending the stage atop the Rally 2 podium. The overall win for today's stage was claimed by KTM's Kevin Beanvides in the bikes section while Audi's Mattias Ekstrom claimed the top spot in the cars category.
In the overall rankings for the bikes, the never-ending duel between Honda's Brabec and Hero's Branch continued for another day with the American rider pulling a further 41 seconds ahead of his rival from Botswana.
Meanwhile, in the cars category, Sebastien Loeb lost nearly 5 minutes to Carlos Sainz today. The veteran Spanish driver known as El Matador to his fans is now 24:47 ahead of Loeb with just three stages to go.
Tomorrow's stage is a 612 journey from Hail back to Dakar 2024's starting point Alula. This is inclusive of a 417-kilometre-long timed special stage and will see competitors race across rocky plateaus and of course, sand.
Continue with Google