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.”
Luciano Benavides showcased incredible pace, quickly overtaking the leader to open much of the challenging stage and gain some valuable bonus time. A small mistake near the end of the special unfortunately meant that a stage win was just out of his grasp today, but the Argentinian was able to hold to complete the stage in second.
“I’m happy with my pace over the past few days, I definitely feel like I am racing faster than I was in week one,” Luciano Benavides said. “The same as yesterday, I was really close to getting the stage win but I just fell short because I made a small mistake near the end of the special and crashed. It’s the first time Kevin and I have done a Benavides 1-2 at the Dakar, so that’s pretty special, for us as brothers and for Argentina.”
Adrien Van Beveren made the most of his tenth place starting position moving himself up the order after his favoured sand section to third. Still chipping away for a podium position he gained another three minutes on the leading trio of Brabec, Branch and José Ignacio Cornejo.
“I was riding well and I felt good on my bike but I had to make a choice when I checked the times of my competitors at the refuelling point,” the Frenchman explained. “I had to make a calculation to slow up as I didn’t want to pay the price by starting up front tomorrow. Even though I did this I still finished third so I don’t think it was the best choice in the end. I’m not happy to throw away a stage victory in this way as it’s not a good feeling, but let’s see if we can make some difference over the next days.”
The job of starting the stage was left to José Ignacio Cornejo. Although at times the route got the better of him, he clung on for some much needed bonuses to finish just 14 seconds behind Van Beveren as he continued to occupy that final podium position overall.
“I had a good stage today even though it was tricky, it was easy to make big mistakes so it was a case of trying to ride safely and smoothly. I lost just a little bit of time today but I have a good starting position for tomorrow which should help for stage nine,” Cornejo said.
Delivering another solid stage performance Toby Price held his own through the first half of the day, before steadily closing in on the leaders over the second, rougher half of the special. Finishing fifth, just over two minutes down on teammate Kevin Benavides, the Australian will enjoy a strong start position for Tuesday’s stage nine, giving him another excellent opportunity to chase down the riders ahead and claw back time on the provisional rally leaders.
“Stage eight here at Dakar and we got through pretty decently, I’d say,” Price said. “No major mishaps or mistakes or anything today, so on that side it was good. The first half was all dunes and sand, then after a long liaison we went into the second part of the stage, which was all stones and off-piste tracks and stuff. The caps were a little harder to follow but it felt like we did a pretty decent job there too. I’m happy with fifth for the stage, and it gives us a good position for tomorrow, but we’re just not quite where we need to be on time. I’m feeling good though, having fun out there, and now I’ll look forward to tomorrow.”
Rui Gonçalves had his best finish of the Rally so far finishing in 6th place.
“I was able to attack, I felt good with the bike but towards the end, I made a small mistake which made me lose a little time, but I managed to catch up and recover a few more minutes and, in the end, I finished in a good sixth place,” Gonçalves said.
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.
