RIYADH: Sebastien Loeb grabbed victory Sunday in the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally after Carlos Sainz was hit with a five-minute penalty.

The victory lifted Loeb to fourth overall but he remains almost two hours behind overall leader Nasser Al-Attiyah.

The 48-year-old Frenchman won the stage by 2 minutes and 11 seconds in his Prodrive from Qatari Al-Attiyah after 822 km of racing through valleys and sand between Al-Duwadimi and Riyadh.

Loeb has had a wildly up-and-down race. After bad days on Monday and Tuesday he won on Wednesday and then rolled his car on Thursday and on Saturday lost more than 16 minutes.

Sainz has also had shifting fortunes in the sands. On Sunday he was caught driving 40 kilometres over the limit in his Audi in a 30kph section. The penalty dropped him to third for the day at 3min 31sec.

The Spaniard is 17th overall.

Henk Lategan was fourth in a Toyota at 4min 53sec to tighten his grip on second place but the South African fell 1hr 3min 46sec behind the leader.

Brazilian Lucas Morais is third in another Toyota at 1:20.22 with Loeb fourth, 1:52.06 off first.

Monday is a rest day before the competitors hit the road again on Tuesday for the final six stages.

In the motorbikes, Ross Branch made amends for running out of fuel in the previous two stages with a welcome win.

Branch, from Botswana, completed the course on his Hero 3min 15sec ahead of the Australian Daniel Sanders (GasGas).

Sanders, who lost the overall lead during a disastrous stage on Thursday, benefitted on Sunday from a two-minute penalty handed out to Mason Klein (KTM) for speeding in the road section.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2023