Al-Attiyah leads into Dakar rest day

Nasser Al-Attiyah maintained his Dakar Rally lead at eight minutes as the event reached its rest day, with fellow World Rally Championship regular Yazeed Al-Rajhi scoring his first stage win.

Giniel de Villiers had carved three minutes out of Al-Attiyah's lead on stage seven on Saturday, and made further gains early on stage eight. But X-raid Mini driver Al-Attiyah was able to peg the Imperial Toyota back late on the stage, holding his outright cushion at 8m27s heading into Monday's break.

The run back from Uyuni to Iquique was split into three, with an initial 293-mile run - much of it flat-out on salt flats - followed by a 170-mile neutralized section and then a final 24-mile sprint to the finish.

It formed the second leg of a 'marathon' stage with Saturday's special, with crews unable to call on team assistance through the weekend and not returning to the service bivouac until Sunday night.

Dakar rookie Al-Rajhi consolidated his current third place overall by claiming his first stage win in his Toyota, beating Orlando Terranova by 1m12s. Al-Attiyah and de Villiers were next up.

Stephane Peterhansel was the top Peugeot in seventh, keeping him in eighth place on the outright leaderboard.

LEADING STAGE EIGHT TIMES:

LEADING OVERALL STANDINGS AFTER STAGE EIGHT: