Surprise winner, Loprais still fourth, Tůma jumps up the standings: what did the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally bring?

The tenth of January brought us the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally. In the car category we have a somewhat surprising winner, Zdeněk Tůma jumped in the four-wheelers. So how are the Czechs doing at the Dakar Rally?

A surprising result for many. The eighth stage in the car category was won by the Swede Mattias Ekström ahead of two Frenchmen – Stéphane Peterhansel and Sébastien Loeb. The current leader of the standings, Nasser al-Attiyah, finished eleventh and the third man in the standings, Yazid al-Rajhi, finished the eighth stage in position number 10.

Czech rider Martin Prokop ended his stint on this stage in seventeenth place and moved up to eighth in the standings.

The same result was achieved by Martin Michek on his motorcycle, but he suffered from rib pains after an injury during the eighth stage.

“It was a very tough special stage, with a lot of dunes at the beginning. That didn’t suit me at all, because the compression in my ribs was bothering me. I tried to fight it. But the pain started in the beginning of the stage and I felt it all the time,” Michek said after the finish.

He swapped positions in the overall standings with Jan Brabec, who finished Monday’s stage in twenty-ninth place – Michek is now twenty-one places behind, Brabec two places behind.

The motorcycle category is currently led by Britain’s Sam Sunderland, who took the win in the eighth stage.

The Russians again had a clear advantage in the trucks. Dmitry Sotnikov won Monday’s eighth stage, but behind him there were three more Russian riders on the results list. They are Andrey Karginov, Eduard Nikolaev and Anton Shibalov. Ignacio Casale from Chile came in fifth place, while Ales Loprais and Martin Macek finished sixth and seventh.

Loprais remains fourth in the standings, Macík is ninth. Sotnikov leads the truck category ahead of Nikolaev and Shibalov.

Zdenek Tuma (sixth place) was a good result. Due to the withdrawal of another rival, he even moved up to the number 5 position in the overall standings, but he is almost four hours behind Francisco Moreno, who is fourth.

Josef Macháček is seventh in the light prototype category and is still sixth in the overall standings.

Sources