Home » Lategan wins eighth stage and extends lead in standings

Lategan wins eighth stage and extends lead in standings

After his rivals gained time in the previous stage, Henk Lategan made his move in the eighth stage. He countered attacks from Yazeed Al Rajhi, Mattias Ekström, and Nasser Al-Attiyah by setting the fastest time. The South African drove his Toyota Hilux to a one-two finish with fellow countryman Guy David Botterill. Mathieu Serradori took third place.

The drivers who performed well in the previous stage lost ground this time. Al Rajhi finished sixth, over 5 minutes behind, Al-Attiyah came in eleventh, 12 minutes back, and Ekström finished seventeenth, trailing by 18 minutes. As a result, Lategan extended his overall lead to 5:41 over Al Rajhi. Ekström held third, 28:55 behind, with Al-Attiyah in fourth, 34:14 back.

With his stage win, Lategan will now open the ninth stage. This stage, from Riyadh to Haradh, is expected to be very fast, with high average speeds. Four stages remain, three of which will take place in the Empty Quarter.

Among the Dutch competitors, Dave Klaassen was the fastest, finishing 35th. Tim Coronel, who started last, managed an impressive 38th-place finish. Maik Willems came 41st, Ronald van Loon 42nd, Rik van den Brink 44th, and Stefan Carmans 49th.

Challengers
Pau Navarro won the stage in the Challenger category. For much of the stage, it seemed David Zille would take the victory, but the Argentine lost a few minutes near the end and dropped to third. Paul Spierings claimed second, gaining some time on the top two in the standings.

The gaps among the leaders were small, but Spierings will appreciate every minute gained. Goncalo Guerreiro finished fourth, Corbin Leaverton fifth, and overall leader Nicolas Cavigliasso seventh.

Cavigliasso maintained his lead in the overall standings, 27 minutes ahead of Guerreiro and 34 minutes ahead of Spierings.

Puck Klaassen finished 17th in the stage but dropped one position in the overall standings, now sitting in 8th place. In the general rankings she’s the quickest female behind the wheel. Gert-Jan van der Valk noted the 18th time and Lex Peters became 23nd. Marinus Streppel became 27th and Richard Aczel noted the 33rd time.

SSVs
For the second consecutive day, Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli won the stage. The Argentine was 2 minutes faster than overall leader Brock Heger and 7 minutes ahead of Jerome de Sadeleer.

Xavier de Soultrait, who had issues the day before, drove a strong stage from the back of the pack, finishing fourth. However, the reigning champion saw Heger extend his lead in the standings.

Heger remains the overall leader, with a 1 hour and 40 minute advantage. Francisco Lopez Contardo is third, over 2 hours behind.

Roger Grouwels came in 13th, Sander Derikx became 16th.

Spierings proves his skill, Cavigliasso takes the win

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