Benavides wins Stage Eight and pips Sanders for lead

2026 Dakar Rally

Stage Eight – Wadi Ad Dawasir to Wadi Ad Dawasir

Monday’s stage eight of the 2026 Dakar Rally has been run and won by Luciano Benavides, who repeated his stage seven form and hit eight career stage wins, while also eclipsing fellow Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider Daniel Sanders in the overall standings, now leading by a narrow 10-seconds.

The Argentinean won by leading the stage from start to finish, showing off his navigation skills and claiming 7m28s in bonuses, and it was a historic result, as despite competing in eight runnings, he’s never led the rally before.

Luciano Benavides

“I felt like I did a really good job today. I pushed all day and felt super good on the bike. I especially like these faster stages where I can read the roadbook well and make good decisions. The last part was crazy with the wind. I couldn’t see the piste, which made navigation really difficult, but overall, it was another strong day, and I picked up a lot of bonus time. To be leading the rally feels amazing, but there’s still a long way to go. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.”

The stage included the longest timed special of the event at 481 kilometres, also featuring a liaison of 236 kilometres completing a loop around Wadi Ad-Dawasir.

Daniel Sanders

“The stage was extremely fast today with easier navigation, which made it very difficult to make up time on the riders out front. Starting from fourth, any small mistake meant there was no chance to close the gap unless the leaders made an error. The wind was tough at the end, pushing the bike around and making it hard to reach top speed, with dust and sand hitting our faces and reducing visibility. Things are a lot closer at the front now, but still, I’m happy to reach another stage finish, and now we can regroup and get ready for the final days.”

Ricky Brabec

“Today’s stage I felt great, made no mistakes, rode as best and as fast as I could all day. It was another fast stage, near the halfway point there started to be a little bit of wind, actually a lot of wind. It was so windy, the top of the ground was covered in dirt, like one metre high, just blowing sand across, which made it a little bit difficult to see. Overall it was a fun stage as we had a mix of everything, a little bit of rocks, not as much as I would like, some fun sand dunes too, so it was a fun stage to ride. I rode by myself all day so maybe tomorrow I can catch up with the group in front of me and ride in a group.”

The day’s top three ended up identical to the overall rankings, Benavides in the lead, ahead of Sanders (+4m50), with Ricky Brabec (+5m02) third. Tosha Schareina (+9m47) and Adrien Van Beveren (+11m56) rounded out the top five, closely followed by Skyler Howes (+12m32).

Tosha Schareina

“We expected something more, the tricky navigation was completely straight, nothing to do. I did my best, so we need to just try to keep going and try to push.”

Adrien Van Beveren

“It was a good day overall, I tried to push, I think I was doing a good pace with a good rhythm. Towards the end I was catching back up to Edgar Canet and I could see the CAP was going kind of wrong and I could see we were going out. I kept going because I wanted to catch him, but we had to turn around and I lost some time. But this is part of it, overall I’m happy with the feeling and confidence with the bike, the fun is back and this is the most important thing for me now.”

Skyler Howes

“There was lots of wind and there was a section out there where we went in the same direction as the wind and it was kind of a sandstorm. The sand was blowing on top of the ground, so you couldn’t actually see it and you were going the same direction so it was almost like you weren’t moving, but we were doing about 150km/h. It was really scary too as you couldn’t see if there were any bumps or anything. So, it was a kind of a crazy day, but otherwise I rode really smooth and consistently and I enjoyed the stage, it was another full gas day. I’m more or less happy to be at the finish, tomorrow we have another marathon stage so I’m going to have to manage the tyre much better than last time.”

Edgar Canet (+15m06), Ignacio Cornejo (+17m13s), Neels Theric (+19m05), and Martim Ventura (19m20s) rounded out the top-10, with Ross Branch falling just outside, in 11th, as the second Hero rider after Cornejo.

Edgar Canet

“Stage eight is finished and it was a really long day. Luciano started ahead of me and was just 10 seconds in front, but I didn’t see him all day and rode completely alone for around 400 kilometres. Later, Daniel arrived, and from there we brought it home. It was a long day at the office, but I’m really happy to arrive safely here at the finish. Now we’re focused and ready for stage nine.”

While Brabec proved fastest in the morning, leading both Benavides and Sanders, the Aussie would minimise that lead, including overtaking both van Beveren and Canet by km 400, leaving just Benavides in front of him.

10-seconds separate Benavides and Sanders

Similar to the standings after the last stage, just five-minutes separates the top three, but this time it’s Benavides leading Sanders with that 10-second gap, and Brabec on the outside at 4m47.

It’s a greater jump to Schareina in fourth, trailing in the overall by 20m13, with Howes fifth and 41m06 off the lead, closely followed Cornejo at +45m58.

Van Beveren now sits just over an hour off the lead at 1h03m13s, and the gap blows out to almost two hours to Ross Branch, with just five stages to go.

Michael Docherty looked set to dominate the Rally 2 class but the BAS World KTM rider crashed, handing the lead of the special to Neels Theric, with Martim Ventura in his wake.

Aussie David Brock finished the day 90th, and now sits 91st overall.

Toby Price finished the day 13th, 5m03s off pace, and now holds 11th overall, 40m26s off the overall leader.

Next: Stage Nine

Tuesday marks the first leg of the second marathon stage. Riders will leave Wadi Ad-Dawasir on a route that totals 541 kilometres, 418 of which are timed special. As always, no outside assistance is permitted as competitors spend the night under the stars at the bivouac refuge. Wednesday will see riders continue to Bisha, where they will be reunited with their teams.

2026 Dakar Rally Stage Eight Results
(Provisional)

2026 Dakar Rally Standings after Stage Eight
(Provisional)

2026 Dakar Rally Route/Schedule

2026 Dakar Rally Route/Schedule

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