Variawa victorious on eighth stage of Dakar Rally

Saood Variawa claimed his second Dakar Rally stage victory – after becoming the youngest driver to win a stage in its top car class at last year’s event – on Monday when he triumphed on Stage 8.

The Toyota Hilux driver took victory by just three seconds ahead of Henk Lategan in another Hilux, on what was the longest stage of this year’s rally, a 483km run at Wadi Ad-Dawasir.

“It’s a second stage win which is incredible,” said Variawa. “The car was perfect on a very long stage on which it was difficult to keep up with the pace. In the dunes, we navigated well while a lot of others got lost.

“At times we went our own way and perhaps that’s where we made a difference. We pushed and overtook other cars. It was difficult in the dust but at the end of the day, I’m very happy and I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

Nasser Al-Attiyah remained in the rally lead with a run to fourth on Monday, 1m16s off the stage win after making a mistake towards the end of the stage.

“We made a little mistake close to the finish and we lost around 3 minutes but I am really happy with the performance and we didn’t lose a lot of time. I think we did a good job. Today we needed to win because tomorrow is very important because if we lose tomorrow we can push after tomorrow”.

Carlos Sainz was fourth for Ford, ahead of Guillaume de Mevius and Sebastien Loeb, with Nani Roma and Brian Baragwanath completing the top-10. After battling for the lead early on Mitch Guthrie slipped to 11th by the end of the stage. He maintains seventh in the overall order, however.

In the Stock class, Rokas Baciuska won to maintain his lead in the category while in the Challenger class, the margin of victory was as close as it was in the top class, with Puck Klaassen beating Dania Akeel by three seconds.

On the bikes Luciano Benavides vaulted from third to first overall after beating Daniel Sanders, who was leading the rally at the start of the day, to the stage victory.