After leading Dakar from sage one Carlos Sainz lost the lead in stage 8 after losing time in a sand hole, which gave the opportunity for storming Qatari Nasser Al Attiyah to take the lead.
Nasser was very fast in the stage taking benefit from starting 2nd on the grid and tracing Carlos’s wheel track.
The competition between both drivers is as fierce as it was last year and none managed to lead the other in more than 3 minutes. Nasser’s win gave him the biggest advantage reaching 5:14 min, and step closer to the dream title.
As we have mentioned before the race is difficult and long and surprises are expected.
We have to mention that their closest rival, teammate 2009 champion Giniel de Villiers is now third in the overall standings 48:27 behind Al-Attiyah.
The overall standing in the car category:
1 Nasser Al-Attiyah 28:39:50
2 Carlos Sainz + 5:14
3 Giniel de Villiers + 48:45
4 Stéphane Peterhansel + 1:33:30
5 Mark Miller + 2:32:23
6 Krzystof Holowczyc + 3:38:59
7 Christian Lavieille + 4:48:55
8 Ricardo Dos Santos + 4:51:29
9 Matthias Kahle + 7:06:57
10 Nani Roma + 10:10:10