Stage 8: Wadi Ad Dawasir – Wadi Ad Dawasir 483km, liaison 238km
Having led stage seven for around 435km of the 459km stage, and re-taken the overall lead – only to falter in the final 20 kilometers due to a broken damper and other sundry bits of his Hilux, was a bitter pill to swallow but the Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC driver put his disappointment aside and stormed to victory on stage eight.
Or so he thought.
It’s fair to say the 20-year-old Saood Variawa and his French co-driver Francois Cazalet have endured a less than memorable Dakar Rally. Their record was 10th on the Prologue, 13th on stage one, 10th on stage two, 17th on stage three (and a 50 second penalty), ninth on stage four, 19th on stage five. 14th on stage six (and a ten second penalty) and 28th on stage seven.
Punctures, navigation issues,, the usual Dakar misery.
Like a stealth fighter, starting from 28th on the road, has set the 12th fastest time by the mid-point of the stage. Ho hum.
44km later, he really started to light up the timing screens, scorching through sixth fastest, a pace and position he held until km 382. By km 414, Variawa was third, and counting…At the final checkpoint he was second, just 45 seconds behind Lategan.
Across the final 35km of the longest stage of the rally, he clocked a time three seconds faster than Lategan. Three seconds! After 483km of dirt and stoned tracks, sand and dunes. It was a jaw-dropping performance from the Toyota Gazoo Racing SA pair.
The opening 45km of the stage saw the top 25 competitors covered in the same minute with stage three winner Mitch Guthrie leading the way.
Lategan was into the lead by km 86 but it was never what could be called a comfortable lead with Guthrie, Sebastien Loeb, Mattias Ekstrom, rally leader Nasser Al-Attiyah and Nani Roma all under one second behind.
After km 180, Guthrie was back in the lead, with Loeb and Roma demoting Lategan to fourth and Al-Attiyah in fifth but only four seconds away.
Loeb took the lead at the 223km mark with Lategan up into second ahead of Ekstrom while Seth Quintero joined the sharp end of the party at the front while Roma dropped back to seventh.
Over the next 225km of racing Lategan was back in front with Al-Attiyah as close as five seconds adrift at one point.
Once the dust has settled, literally, behind Variawa and Lategan, Ekstrom gave the Ford Raptor another podium with third, 29 second behind Lategan and 12 seconds ahead of Quintero. Carlos Sainz continued his consistent run, ending sixth with a resurgent Guillaume de Mevius – the stage one winner – following in seventh.
Loeb, Roma and Brian Baragwanath rounded out the top ten.
In the provision overall standings, Al-Attiyah retains his lead with a reduced gap to Ekstrom of four minutes, with Lategan moving into third, 6’08” from the lead.
Luciano Benavides delivered a brilliant day of navigation on his KTM to rack up over seven minutes of road-opening bonus to win the eighth stage. His victory moved the Argentine into a ten second overall Rally2 lead over his factory KTM teammate Daniel Sanders.
Honda trio, American Skyler Howes, Frenchman Adrien van Beveren and Spaniard Tosha Schareina squabbled over third.
Brabec ended third as he consolidated what is now third overall.
Images credits: A.S.O/Red Bull Content Pool
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