The eighth stage of Dakar 2017, which took place on Tuesday, saw the gruelling rally return to its usual long-distance format. Drivers competed in a 492 km special stage between Bolivia and Argentina in which Sebastien Loeb slotted in at the top of the overall standings.
Loeb was able to develop a three-and-a-half minute gap from Stephane Peterhansel, leaving him 1 min 38 sec ahead, overall. Loeb claimed that he would have increased the gap but in the last part of the stage he was forced to pull over to repair a tyre puncture.
Thanks to the hard work put in by Cyril Despres and navigator David Castera, Peugeot was able to push Toyota Storm’s Nani Roma down to fourth place, making for a 1-2-3 Peugeot finish once again.
Roma, however, seemed to struggle with the stage as a whole after finishing seventh and suffering a four-minute loss in time.
Stage 9, which was set to take place on Wednesday, was cancelled due to a landslide that blocked the route the vehicles needed to take to reach Chilecito and obstructed access to the 406 km competitive stage.
As of Thursday, the racing has resumed with stage 10.
1. Loeb (Peugeot) 20 h 10 min 05 sec
2. Peterhansel (Peugeot) +1 min 38 sec
3. Despres (Peugeot) +17 min 17 sec
4. Roma (Toyota) +23 min 36 sec
5. Hirvonen (Mini) +53 min 41 sec
6.De Villiers (Toyota) +1 h 21 min 44 sec
7. Terranova (Mini) +1 h 26 min 47 sec
8. Przygonsi (Mini) +1 h 42 min 18 sec
9. Garafulic (Mini) +2 h 42 min 57 sec
10. Dumas (Peugeot) +3 h 09 min 17 sec
