The 2024 Dakar Rally has something special each day and stage 8 saw the first-ever Indian to take a stage win — Harith Noah. Riding for TVS Sherco in the Rally 2 class, Noah has been showing consistent performance and stage 8 saw him take the stage win in his class. In the overall rankings, Noah is in 13th place, while in his class, the Indian rider is currently third, with a little over 8 minutes separating him and the leader.
In the overall motorcycle category, defending champion Kevin Benavides took the overall stage win in the motorcycle class while Mattias Ekstrom took the win in the cars category.
The 678km stage saw competitors battle it over 458km of timed special over sand, rocks, and tarmac. The day proved to be perfect for the Benavides brothers who took the first two spots on the stage win, followed by Adrien Van Beveren in third. In the overall standings, the lead between rally leader Ricky Brabec and Hero’s Ross Branch has extended to 42 seconds, but that’s a small gap to close. Honda’s Nacho Cornejo is in third, followed by AVB and Kevin Benavides, making up the top 5.
In the cars category, it was Audi taking the 1-2 stage win, with ‘Mr Dakar’, Stephane Peterhansel finishing second, followed by Guerlain Chicherit in third. WRC champion Sebastien Loeb had a bad outing, with navigational errors making the Frenchman miss a waypoint, but he was eventually back on track after losing time in the dunes.
The biggest disappointment on the stage was for the defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah, as he had to retire after mechanical issues with his Prodrive Hunter. The Qatari was out of contention for the win this year, however, his retiring owing to problems with his vehicle is a setback.
In the overall rankings, Carlos Sainz still leads with over 24 minutes to spare from his closest rival, Loeb, who is in second. Toyota’s Lucas Moraes stands third overall despite a seventh-place finish in stage 8 of the 2024 Dakar Rally.
2024 Dakar Rally Stage 8 results
| Motorcycles | Rider | Team |
| 1 | Kevin Benavides | KTM |
| 2 | Luciano Benvides | Husqvarna |
| 3 | Adrien Van Beveren | Honda |
| Cars | Driver | Make |
| 1 | Mattias Ekstrom | Audi |
| 2 | Stephane Peterhansel | Audi |
| 3 | Guerlain Chicherit | Toyota |
