Dakar | Stage 8 Auto: Ekstrom leads Audi to victory. What a fight between Al-Attiyah and Loeb

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The eighth stage of the 44th edition of the Rally-Dakar 2022 is also worthy; went to archive. The crews crossed the dunes, sand and dirt tracks of the special that kept the drivers busy for 400 km. For the teams aboard the four-wheelers, the first danger to cross is; it was the desert Nafud as Surrah and its imperious dunes , which required several competitors to do more; attempts to overcome them.

Different strategies implemented by the pilots; with the rookie Mattias Ekstr & ouml; m who has decided to cautiously accompany his Audi between the sandy slopes while & ldquo; Mister Dakar & rdquo; Peterhansel has opted for a more & ugrave; daring, leaving for & ograve; his hood as a tribute to the desert. After the fine sand the teams found themselves facing the rocks and the labyrinths of the canyons . As you can imagine, here the day is & egrave; made particularly hard for the forerunners intent on brainstorming to find the most difficult; useful of possible ways.


The pursuer S & eacute; bastien Loeb (Bahrain Xtreme driver), winner of the seventh stage, despite the accumulated delay, still dreams of catching the leader of the caravan and, in the stage just ended, & egrave; managed to recover seven minutes on Al-Attiyah and his Toyota. Yet, the day is not; It was one of the best for the Frenchman given the puncture at km 28 of the special and the neutralization at km 191 due to a problem with the bodywork of his Hunter.

Despite the problem, for Loeb there is no; was no penalty five minutes but only a fine to his Bahrain Raid Xtreme team of 10,000 euros , of which 5,000 euros suspended if a similar situation does not occur again. There is still hope for the driver from beyond the Alps, albeit weak, given the 35 minutes of disadvantage in the general classification.

& ldquo; Not & egrave; it was easy. We pushed a lot from the beginning to the end because we were leading the way, so we just wanted to stay ahead and not have Nasser in tow. We left immediately convinced and strong, but we punctured. We changed the wheel quickly and in the end we continued like this; up to the point of neutralization, where for & ograve; we realized we had lost the spare tire, which was also the only one we had left. So I had to stay a while careful at the end, but I think that overall we have made a good stage. Navigation is; it was good and without mistakes, I don't know if we made a profit on Nasser. We are there and he is not; still arrived so I don't know which one it will be; the posting at the end & rdquo ;. These are the words of Sebastian Loeb .

Nasser Al-Attiyah he's trying to manage the lead and lead aboard his Toyota, yet he's unsure of victory. Not after having broken part of the rear transmission that forced him to finish the stage with only the two front-wheel drive. In short, for him the advantage is; consistent but the victory still has to be sweated .


Impossible not to report the & quot; hat-trick & quot; of the day brought home by Audi's three Q RS e-tron racing , which are showing the world new ways to conceive Dakar cars, bringing three hybrid cars to the top four places. For this edition, the brand from the Anelli fielded its own electric prototypes equipped with range extender and on the most step; top of the podium there is climbed Mattias Ekstr & ouml; m (for him it is the first career victory in the Dakar) followed by Stephane Peterhansel and the veteran Carlos Sainz in fourth place.

These are the words of Ekstr & ouml; m : & quot; I had a really, really fun stage, my co-driver sailed fantastic for the whole test, there was no detail that wasn't perfect, so a great day. We still feel like rookies, we try to learn every day and today we made no mistakes & quot;

THE RANKINGS Al Dawadimi-Wadi Ad Dawasir

1. Ekstrom-Bergkvist (Audi) in 3h43 & rsquo; 21 & rdquo;

2. Peterhansel-Boulanger (Audi) at 49 & rdquo;

3. Loeb-Lurquin (Hunter) at 3 & rsquo; 08 & rdquo;

4. Sainz-Cruz (Audi) at 3 & rsquo; 11 & rdquo;

5. Lategan-Cummings (Toyota) at 3 & rsquo; 20 & rdquo;

6. Terranova-Carreras (Hunter) at 4 & rsquo; 53 & rdquo;

7. Serradori-Minaudier (Srt) at 7 & rsquo; 03 & rdquo;

8. Przygonski-Gottschalk (Mini) at 8 & rsquo; 11 & rdquo;

9. De Villiers-Murphy (Toyota) at 9 & rsquo;

10. Al Rajhi-Orr (Toyota) at 9 & rsquo; 51 & rdquo;

Overall Ranking:

1. Al Attiyah-Baumel (Toyota) in 27h45 & rsquo; 52 & rdquo;

2. Loeb-Lurquin (Hunter) at 37 & rsquo; 58 & rdquo;

3. Al Rajhi-Orr (Toyota) at 53 & rsquo; 13 & rdquo;

4. Przygonski-Gottschalk (Mini) at 1h28 & rsquo; 06 & rdquo;

5. Terranova-Carreras (Hunter) at 1h31 & rsquo; 39 & rdquo;

6. Vasilyev-Uperenko (Bmw) at 1h40 & rsquo; 57 & rdquo;

7. De Villiers-Murphy (Toyota) at 1h46 & rsquo; 05 & rdquo;

8. Halpern-Graue (Mini) at 2h08 & rsquo; 42 & rdquo;

9. Prokop-Chytka (Ford) at 2h09 & rsquo; 05 & rdquo;

10. Serradori-Minaudier (Srt) at 2h31 & rsquo; 31 & rdquo;

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