Who leads after stage eight of 2026 Dakar Rally?
13th January 2026The Dakar remained within the Wad Ad-Dawasir region for the eighth stage as the prestigious event continued its way westward, and here is who leads after eight stages.
Feature image credit: Kin Marcin / Red Bull Content Pool
After arriving in the Wadi Ad-Dawasir region from Riyadh, following the break, the Dakar conducted its penultimate loop in the region, with crews facing 481km ahead of the second marathon stage on Tuesday.
The loop made crews tackle canyon crossings through vegetation and sudden direction changes, to add even more difficulty to the challenge. It was the first time since 2022 that the Wadi Ad-Dawasir region featured in the Dakar.
So, after stage eight, who stands in the lead of the Dakar?
Bikes
Luciano Benavides took the stage win on SS8, ahead of teammate Daniel Saunders, who finished nearly five minutes behind.
It prompted a decent finish for Red Bull and Monster Energy Honda as four of their riders completed the top 6; Ricky Brabec, Tosha Schareina, Adrien van Beveren and Skyler Howes, from third to sixth respectively.
Overall, Benavides now takes over as the class leader, 10 seconds ahead of Sanders, as Brabec rounds out the top three.
Car
Toyota were strong in Wadi Ad-Dawasir as they took up three positions inside the top four, with Saood Variawa/Farncois Cazalet taking the stage win, three seconds ahead of teammate Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings.
Seth Quintero/Andrew Short occupied fourth place, with Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist, of Ford, slotting inside the top three in third.
Nasser Al-Attiyah/Fabian Lurquin, of Dacia Sandriders, remains as the class leader as the Dakar legend sits four minutes ahead of Ekstrom/Bergkvist. Lategan/Cummings round out the top three, just over six minutes behind.
Trucks
The top three for both the stage ranking and the overall rankings remained unchanged when stage eight concluded.
Eurol RallySport led the way with their All-Dutch crew of Mitchel van den Brink, Bart van Heun and Jarno van de Pol. The Dutch crew finished five minutes ahead of the Nordis crew; Vaidotas Zala, Paulo Fiuza and Max van Grol, as MM Technology, crewed by Martin Macik, Frantisek Tomasek and David Svanda, rounded out the top three.
Overall, Eurol RallySport has a healthy 38-minute lead over Nordis Team, who occupy second place, and MM Technology remain third, 50 minutes behind Eurol.
Read more Rally Raid here:
- Who leads after Dakar Rally returns after break?
- Who leads after the first week of the 2026 Dakar Rally?
- Who finished where as Dakar Rally moved north for stage 2?
- How did stage one finish at the Dakar Rally?
- How did the Dakar Rally prologue unfold?
- Dakar Rally 2026: Schedule and route for Saudi Arabian event
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
