Stephane Peterhansel, a living legend of the Dakar with 13 titles in the car and motorcycle categories, beat Peugeot team-mate Cyril Despres to come out at the top of the eighth stage in the Dakar Rally. Having lost his overall lead on Saturday, thanks to being at a standstill for 1.5 hours due to suspension damage, Peterhansel started off lower down the order.
Sunday saw Peterhansel recover some of the lost time on the 497km stretch between Uyuni and Tupiza in Bolivia. Although Despres challenged Peterhansel all through the day, all he managed was the runner-up position with 49 seconds off the winning time. Toyota's Nasser Al-Attiyah edged ahead of the rest of the players behind Peterhansel and Despres, and while doing so, found himself a second place in the general classification.
Although Qatari driver Al-Attiyah was on the top at the first two waypoints, he couldn’t maintain it and the time-gap eventually widened. His team-mates Bernhard ten Brinke and Giniel de Villiers kept switching positions in the general classification through the day, but de Villiers subsequently dropped to fifth after he lost more than 20 minutes.
Monday’s stage which involves a 240km Tupiza-Salta test, has been cancelled due to poor weather conditions. Heavy rain in the area has prompted the decision and Carlos Sainz now has a lead of one hour and seven minutes.
