Saood Variawa edged out Toyota team-mate Henk Lategan in the final dash to the finish line to claim victory in the eighth stage of the 2026 Dakar Rally.
Despite being the longest stage of the 48th edition of Dakar, the 483km special around Wadi Ad-Dawasir offered the closest competition so far in the rally, with the top eight drivers separated by just under a minute at the halfway point of the day.
Mitch Guthrie set the early pace in the Ford Raptor, but Lategan quickly flipped the order by the second checkpoint, assuming a narrow five-second lead.
American Guthrie fought back and retook the initiative 180km into the stage, when Lategan suddenly dropped back to fourth behind Dacia’s Sebastien Loeb and the second Ford of Nani Roma.
In the middle part of the stage, nine-time World Rally champion Loeb upended the order, ending Ford and Toyota's duopoly at the fourth checkpoint to climb to the top of the leaderboard.
But Loeb’s run at the front proved to be short-lived, with Lategan, Mattias Ekstrom and his own team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah all edging ahead of him in the next 40km.
Guthrie, however, lost time suddenly, dropping almost two minutes between the two checkpoints. This left Ekstrom and Al-Attiyah as Lategan’s closest rivals, with Al-Attiyah in particular launching a ferocious attack to close within five seconds of the Toyota star with just the final 100km to run.
However, Al-Attiyah’s attack lost steam on the run to the finish, allowing Lategan to provisionally become the first repeat stage winner of Dakar 2026.
But in a surprising turn of events, Variawa denied Lategan the top spot by just three seconds, clawing back the 45s deficit he faced at the final checkpoint before the finish.
It was an incredible comeback from the South African, who trailed the leaders in sixth place heading into the final 100km of the stage.
The result also marked only the second stage win of Variawa's short career in Dakar, after his breakthrough victory in 2025.
Behind the Toyota duo, Ekstrom won the fight for the best-of-the-rest spot, finishing just 29s off the lead in third place despite opening the road.
Seth Quintero made it three Hiluxes inside the top four, having spent the majority of the stage within one minute of the leaders, edging out the top Dacia of Al-Attiyah, who had to settle for fifth.
Ford’s star driver Carlos Sainz Sr finished the day sixth, but only 1m29s off the top spot, while Stage 1 winner Guillaume de Mevius guided his X-Raid Mini to seventh place.
Loeb eventually dropped to eighth after leading the stage briefly, with Roma and Century’s Mathieu Serradori following him closely in ninth and 10th respectively.
Guthrie inexplicably fell to 11th by the end of the stage, just ahead of Toyota’s Toby Price, losing nearly five minutes in the second half of the day.
In the overall standings, Al-Attiyah continues to hold the top spot for Dacia, but his advantage over Ford rival Ekstrom has been slashed to exactly four minutes.
Lategan moves up to third place in the best of the Toyotas, 6m08s off the lead, with Ford duo Roma and Sainz further back in fourth and fifth respectively.
Loeb and Guthrie remain sixth and seventh respectively in the rankings, despite losing time late on Monday.
Dakar Rally - Overall results after Stage 8:
| Pos | Driver | Car | time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | #299 – The Dacia Sandriders | 32h32m06s |
| 2 | Mattias Ekstrom | #226 – Ford Racing | +4m00s |
| 3 | Henk Lategan | #202 – Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC | +6m08s |
| 4 | Nani Roma | #227 – Ford Racing | +9m37s |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz Sr | #225 – Ford Racing | +10m39s |
| 6 | Sebastien Loeb | #219 – The Dacia Sandriders | +17m25s |
| 7 | Mitch Guthrie | #228 – Ford Racing | +23m00s |
| 8 | Mathieu Serradori | #214 – Century Racing Factory Team | +25m04s |
| 9 | Lucas Moraes | #223 – The Dacia Sandriders | +29m55s |
| 10 | Joao Ferreira | #240 – Toyota Gazoo Racing SA | +35m08s |
Read and post comments