Al-Attiyah takes the lead

Nasser Al-Attiyah is the new leader of the Dakar Rally. The Qatari won the eighth stage and overtook his Volkswagen team-mate Carlos Sainz in the overall standings. The Spaniard had led the rally since the opening stage.

Sainz entered leg 8 of the Dakar with only 1m22s of advantage over Al-Attiyah. He was in the lead for most of the 508km between Antofagasta to Copiapo but in the last 5km he got his Touareg stuck on sand dunes twice and had to dig it out.

Thanks to Sainz’s delays Al-Attiyah won his third stage of the rally with an advantage of six and a half minutes, now leading the race with a lead of more than five.

"In the last section of dunes we were pushing at a maximum because that was where we had to take the time from Sainz," Al-Attiyah said. "I'm quite happy to win the stage, quite happy.

"It was a difficult stage because I was opening all the way, but the dunes are my favourite terrain and I was really pushing to the limit. I'm happy to win the stage and take the lead in the general standings. I can control the race now."

At the end of the day, Sainz was a frustrated by his performance.

"I hope today will have been our worst day on the Dakar," he said. "At the end we got stuck in the dunes twice and both times we had to get out and dig. Sometimes everything's fine, other times it's not as good.”

"We'll just have to keep on going. We need to attack. On a rally, each stage is long and hard. We'll see what happens. Obviously, I've lost some time, but the rally isn't over, there are still other stages left."

In the bikes Marc Coma extended his lead in the overall standings. The KTM man won the stage by 1m55s ahead of Frenchman and team-mate Cyril Despres. The Spaniard has increased his advantage to 9m19s. Chilean Francisco Lopez (Aprilia) is lying in third place 22m48s behind Coma.