Benavides and Van Beveren stopped to assist Pablo Quintanilla, who suffered a serious crash about 130 kilometers into the stage. Quintanilla sustained a shoulder injury and had to withdraw from the race.
For a moment, it seemed like Honda was heading for a 1-2-3 finish, but the time credited to Luciano Benavides for assisting in the incident propelled him to first place on his KTM. Luciano now sees the gap to the final podium spot at around nine minutes and will undoubtedly give his all to secure a trophy for the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team.
Daniel Sanders had to open the stage again following his victory in Stage 7 yesterday. He finished over six minutes behind the leader but still retains his lead in the overall standings. Sanders holds an 11-minute advantage over second-placed Toscha Schareina and a 21-minute lead over the second Honda rider, Adrien Van Beveren.
A standout performance today came from Michael Docherty, who claimed a respectable 6th place. Riding a bike prepared by the BAS World KTM team, Docherty was only six minutes off the pace despite sustaining a small fracture in his shoulder blade during the first week. In the Rally2 classification, Docherty currently sits in 7th place.
Meanwhile, Edgar Canet, Red Bull KTM’s youngest rider, leads the Rally2 standings with a 30-minute advantage over Tobias Ebster, another rider from Bart Van der Velden’s team. The third spot in the Rally2 classification is held by Honda’s Frenchman Romain Dumontier.
