Starting just behind his main rival on stage eight, Brabec pulled out the stops to lead most of the day, increasing the gap at one point to over three minutes over Branch. However, after 400 km of the special, he had dropped behind his teammate Adrien Van Beveren, losing time in the final 50 km to end the day in seventh place. Despite this setback, Brabec still managed to open up his overall standings lead to 42 seconds.

Van Beveren made the most of his tenth-place starting position, moving himself up the order after his favored sand section to third place. Still chipping away for a podium position, he gained another three minutes on the leading trio of Brabec, Branch, and Cornejo.

The job of starting the stage was left to Cornejo, who clung on for some much-needed bonuses to finish just 14 seconds behind Van Beveren as he continued to occupy that final podium position overall. Pablo Quintanilla was looking for a more positive day on the Dakar, but a lack of confidence in the dunes saw him fall the order to eleventh place.

With riders spending the night next to Ha’il airport, they will take off for stage nine towards AlUla, which makes a return to the route on this year’s Dakar. The fascinating ancient city will welcome the riders after a total 639 km distance, 417 km of which will test them to their limits with complicated navigation and rocky expanses keeping them on their toes.

Ruben Faria (General Manager) “It was a very good day for us, we’re still leading with Ricky and he increased the gap to Ross Branch. Nacho did a really good job taking the bonuses on the stage and it allowed him to recover time to Ricky and Ross as he gets ever closer to them in the overall standings.

Adrien is a little bit further behind in fourth but he’s still very close to a podium position, we’ll see what he can do in the next few days to make up the difference.

Even with the problems Pablo has had in the last days, we’re happy that he’s still in the race. Now he can help his teammates should they have any issues that arise over the coming stages.

Tomorrow is stage nine and although it looks really difficult our riders are in good shape to tackle it, so we’ll see what happens.”

Pablo Quintanilla 7 (Stage: 11th; Overall: 12th) “I honestly didn’t feel so good today and felt that I couldn’t ride with much confidence. The first part had some sandy sections with dunes and some of the drops were difficult to see. When you don’t feel so confident then you go slower so I’m glad I got to the end of the stage.”

Ricky Brabec 9 (Stage: 7th; Overall: 1st) “I didn’t want to start too far away from Ross tomorrow so I had to play a little bit of cat and mouse with him. I caught him early on so stuck with him all day, then at the refueling point I saw some times and I was winning. I let Ross take over and open the way to the finish line as we had to play smart today and I didn’t want him starting behind me tomorrow. It was still a good day to finish seventh and I’ll continue to have fun out there.”

José Ignacio “Nacho” Cornejo 11 (Stage: 4th; Overall: 3rd) “I had a good stage today even though it was tricky, it was easy to make big mistakes so it was a case of trying to ride safely and smoothly. I lost just a little bit of time today but I have a good starting position for tomorrow which should help for stage nine.”

Adrien Van Beveren 42 (Stage: 3rd; Overall: 4th) “I was riding well and I felt good on my bike but I had to make a choice when I checked the times of my competitors at the refueling point. I had to calculate to slow up as I didn’t want to pay the price by starting up front tomorrow. Even though I did this I still finished third so I don’t think it was the best choice in the end. I’m not happy to throw away a stage victory in this way as it’s not a good feeling, but let’s see if we can make some difference over the next days.”

Honda’s Ricky Brabec has maintained his lead in the overall standings of the Dakar Rally 2024 after stage eight, despite facing tough competition from Ross Branch and Jose Ignacio Cornejo. Adrien Van Beveren moved up to third place, while Pablo Quintanilla struggled with confidence in the dunes and finished in eleventh place. The riders will now face a challenging stage nine towards AlUla, with complicated navigation and rocky expanses keeping them on their toes.

2024 World Rally Raid Championship

RallyGP Results – Stage 8

RallyGP Provisional Standings after Stage 8

The post Honda’s Brabec Strengthens Overall Lead in Dakar Rally 2024 after Stage Eight appeared first on NRI News.

SAUDI ARABIA: The 2024 Dakar Rally has finally begun in Saudi Arabia with the prologue kicking off the action for the Monster Energy Honda Team amidst the breathtaking backdrop of AlUla.

Riding amongst the historical rock formations, the first Honda RallyGP rider out of the starting blocks was Tosha Schareina on today’s 27 km course being on full attack from the get-go. The young Spaniard brilliantly topped the timesheets and therefore saw him take his first ever Dakar stage win.

The organisers had set a very tricky prologue which saw riders being tested on off-piste and sandy sections relying heavily on their navigation skills.  A day after his 33rd birthday, Adrien Van Beveren kept in touching distance of Tosha to be fourth just 24 seconds behind, while Dakar Legend Pablo Quintanilla posted the seventh quickest time of the day.

The vastly experienced pairing of Ricky Brabec and José Ignacio Cornejo were a little further back finishing in thirteenth and fourteenth as they will look to move up the rankings as the rally gets underway proper tomorrow.

A tougher than usual challenge for the opening day, it wasn’t the ideal start for Skyler Howes as an error saw him not only his Honda CRF450 RALLY but also his road book.  Despite losing time there are still two weeks of rallying to go and the American rider is positive he can change things around.

The bonus of finishing in the top ten today means riders will get to choose their place for tomorrow’s stage later on this evening and with Tosha on top it’ll be interesting to see what position he chooses.  Don’t forget he won World Rally-Raid Championship stages in 2023 despite being first on the stage so this could very well be factored into his plan for tomorrow.

Stage one will kick off the first weekend in January with riders heading East from AlUla to Al Henakiyah where they will be thrown into a 414 km special stage.  A 127 km liaison will make up the 541 km total distance in what promises to be a demanding day with rocky terrain and volcanoes on the menu as riders head to the first bivouac.

Ruben Faria (General Manager)

“It didn’t go too badly for the first day of action for the Monster Energy Honda Team at this year’s 2024 Dakar Rally with almost all our riders in the top 20. It was an unlucky situation for Skyler as he had a little crash and broke some parts on the bike, so he couldn’t ride as well as he wanted to. The rest of the riders are all in a good spot for tomorrow which is important for stage one, so today has been a good start for the team.”

Pablo Quintanilla 7 (Prologue: 7th)

“It was not an easy prologue, there were many lines, it was sandy, bumpy, some sections were tricky and I got confused with one note so lost a few seconds. It’s important to start the prologue without crashing or with any big issues so for me it went well. I also have a good start position for tomorrow when we start the real race with longer stages, so I’m happy with the day.”

Ricky Brabec 9 (Prologue: 13th)

“It’s just the prologue but I’m happy to get through that and start the rally. We’ll see how everyone chooses their position for tomorrow and hopefully, we’ll start in a good spot. The prologue wasn’t technical, but it wasn’t easy, the navigation was a little bit tricky, trickier than you would think going through all these canyons. It’s only the prologue so finishing a minute and 20 seconds out is not a big deal.”

Skyler Howes 10 (Prologue: 42nd)

“This prologue was really not a good start for me, the organization likes to play a bit with some things and they had some sticks that we were supposed to go through. There were so many lines going through each way throughout the open desert that it was hard to see these sticks, I cut across to go through them, hit a big camel grass that was obviously off track, and had a really big crash, but luckily I was OK. I damaged the bike, lost quite a bit of time and it was hard to ride afterwards as I’d also damaged the road book so I had to rely on following the tracks.

Then later on in the stage, there was a tricky note, obviously, I had no roadbook to verify so I was more or less going around in circles just trying to figure it out. Finally, I validated the way point and was able to continue on but I lost about five minutes today which is super frustrating and an annoying way to start the race like this.”

José Ignacio “Nacho” Cornejo 11 (Prologue: 14th)

“The first day of action was definitely not easy, heavy sands, and some rocky sections in the middle definitely made it interesting, but overall it wasn’t a bad day at all. We’ll have a different starting position for stage one but tomorrow is where the real action starts. With some little changes on the bike, I’ll be ready to go out there and fight.”

Adrien Van Beveren 42 (Prologue: 4th)

“For the first day, it was like a mini stage, not a usual prologue where you have the lines and you follow a track. There was more navigation, a lot of notes in the road book and I realised we had to focus on that and keep pushing at the same time. The lines of the guys in front of us made it a bit confusing at times because they were not always going in a good direction. It was a busy stage but I’m happy, the bike is going really well and we’re going to be ready for the push tomorrow.”

Tosha Schareina 68 (Prologue: 1st)

“I felt really good in the prologue, it was longer than expected with more navigation and it was 100% sand too. Of course, we have to keep our feet on the ground because the main race starts tomorrow, so I will keep focused on that and keep thinking about Dakar.

2024 World Rally Raid Championship Provisional Standings after Prologue

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