2024 Dakar Stage 8: Kevin Benavides Takes Stage Victory As Ricky Brabec Eeks Out Slender Overall Lead

Kevin Benavides has won stage eight of the 2024 Dakar Rally ahead of his brother Luciano Benavides and Adrien Van Beveren while Ricky Brabec extended his advantage in the overall standings.

Thankfully for the riders, stage eight at Dakar lessened the intensity a little with the 458-kilometer timed special split into two – a 179-kilometer liaison joining the two very different halves. The first leg consisted mainly of sandy tracks and dunes, but the second half posed more of a challenge with stones and rocks covering much of the final 119 kilometers leading to the finish in Ha’il.

Times were tight on the stage, with the top six riders separated by less than two and a half minutes. defending Champion Kevin Benavides came out on top, however, skillfully navigating his way through the special to complete the day’s racing 31 seconds ahead of his brother, Luciano. Retaining his fifth place ranking in the provisional overall standings, Kevin continues to close in on the rally leaders, stage by stage.

“It has been a really good day today – I really enjoyed the ride,” Benavides said. “The stage was split into two with the first part more sandy tracks and dunes, but with a lot of navigation. And the second part was more stone and mountains. The two guys opening the stage – my brother and Nacho (Cornejo) – did a really good job, but I was able to catch them both by the end. I’m so proud to win the stage and have a 1-2 with my brother. It means I’ll be opening tomorrow, so hopefully I will do a good job. I’ll give it my all as always.”

Starting just behind his main rival on stage eight, Rally leader Ricky Brabec pulled out the stops to lead most of the day increasing the gap at one point to over three minutes over second placed Ross Branch, but after 400 km of the special he had dropped behind his teammate Adrien Van Beveren that lost him time in the final 50 kms to end the day in seventh. Having caught Branch early on he rode with him for the majority of the day not letting the Botswanan out of his sights as he opened up his overall standings lead to 42 seconds.

” didn’t want to start too far away from Ross tomorrow so I had to play a little bit of cat and mouse with him,” Brabec explained. “I caught him early on so stuck with him all day, then at the refuelling point I saw some times and I was winning. I let Ross take over and open the way to the finish line as we had to play smart today and I didn’t want him starting behind me tomorrow. It was still a good day to finish seventh and I’ll continue to have fun out there.”

With riders spending the night next to Ha’il airport, they will take off for stage nine towards AlUla which makes a return to the route on this year’s Dakar. The fascinating ancient city will welcome the riders after a total 639 km distance, 417 km of which will test them to their limits with complicated navigation and rocky expanses keeping them on their toes.