2022 Dakar Rally Results: Sunderland back in charge on stage eight

2022 Dakar Rally stage eight results where GASGAS Factory Racing’s Sam Sunderland takes back control of the race, his sixth day in charge after finishing ahead of Pablo Quintanilla and Matthias Walkner.

Dakar Stage 8 in a nutshell:

With 200-ish kilometres of unbroken sand dunes during the 395km special stage, today was a day for the riders who love the doonies. That’s the flipside of an eye-watering 435km in the saddle (liaison) they’ve got to suck up…no wonder so many bikers eventually switch to four wheels in this race.

Check how those sand mountains were today…

• Checkpoint check-ins throughout stage eight had the same name at the top, Sam Sunderland. The sole remaining GASGAS Factory rider had a “not ideal” stage seven which saw him lose the rally lead and 25 minutes but he made amends big time today.
• 28th place start position helped Sam aim at the riders in front and he finished in a total time of 3:48.02 which was just short of three minutes faster than Pablo Quintanilla.
• Quintanilla started P12 on the Monster Energy Honda and, riding with Andrew Short for some of the stage, moved back into P4 scratch.
• As has been the case all Dakar, Matthias Walkner was not far behind Sunderland on time. Having been tailed and then caught by Sam in the dunes, KTM's lead rider finished the stage in third to maintain his challenge in second overall, 3.45 back.
• Ricky Brabec brought the second HRC CRF home in fourth place ahead of 20-year-old Mason Klein in fifth who continues to lead the rookie and junior categories. The BAS KTM rider sits P10 scratch, three minutes adrift of Toby Price (who Mason beat on today’s stage by 30 seconds).
• Yesterday’s rally leader Adrien Van Beveren was ninth on the stage, 10 minutes behind Sam. The Frenchman says the handlebar mounted electronic roadbook control stopped working so he had to manually scroll it for much of the stage – that means riding one-handed to be clear. The Yamaha pilot will have a beneficial start position tomorrow though.
• The overall leaderboard has four riders edging clear with four stages remaining: Sunderland, Walkner, Van Beveren and Quintanilla who are all roughly withing five minutes though Sam is clear of the other three. The next gaggle of riders, led by Joan Barreda and Kevin Benavides, are beginning to be cut adrift.  Lorenzo Santolino is fifth but P20 today, more than 20 mins behind the race leader hasn't helped his podium challenge.
• Yesterday’s stage winner Jose Cornejo did his best to lead from the front but was caught by Joan Barreda and the Benavides brothers, Kevin having suffered a fuel pump problem which cost him time.

* results will update

2022 Dakar Rally Stage 8 results:

Provisional overall classification after stage 8 (top 30):

Photo Credit: RallyZone + MCH Photos