Benavides wins the stage again and takes the lead and Lategan wins before the marathon in the Dakar

The Argentine Luciano Benavides (KTM) won this Monday his second consecutive stage victory in the Dakar Rally, with start and finish in Wadi ad-Dawasir and 483 kilometers timed in the motorcycle category, to take the lead with just 10 seconds ahead of the Australian Daniel Sanders (KTM), with the Spanish Tosha Schareina (Honda) very far from the final victory, while the South African Henk Lategan (Toyota) won ‘Ultimate’ before the marathon, Nani Roma (Ford) falls overall and Carlos Sainz (Ford) holds on.

Benavides shook the Dakar on motorcycles in the eighth stage of the race, pushed by the bonus to rise to the top of the general classification, although only 10 seconds ahead of Sanders, who entered the finish line 4:50 behind the Argentine.

Schareina, fourth this Monday and who already had a very difficult time, lost more than 9 minutes with Benavides and moves even further away from the ‘Touareg’, now more than 20 minutes behind the new leader. While Edgar Canet (KTM) finished seventh in the stage.

In the ‘Ultimate’ car category, the winner of the day was Lategan with less than 30 seconds over the Swede Mattias Ekström (Ford) and with the American Seth Quintero (Toyota) closing the ‘top 3′ also at just over 30″. The Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia), who remains the leader with 4’ over the Scandinavian, lost only 1:13 on the day and entered fourth at the finish line.

Behind, 13 seconds behind, came Carlos Sainz, who remains fifth overall, 10 minutes behind the Qatari, while Roma, who is now fourth overall, dropped more than 2 minutes to Al-Attiyah, although he will be able to start further back in the first part of the marathon that starts this Tuesday.