Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah wins eighth stage at Dakar Rally

Nani Roma maintained a comfortable lead at the Dakar Rally on Monday, as did Marc Coma in the motorbike section.

Nasser Al-Attiyah won the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally on Monday by 1 min 12 sec over Stephane Peterhansel. Nicolas Aguilera / EPA

CALAMA, Chile // Spaniards Nani Roma and Marc Coma kept their comfortable overall leads in the Dakar Rally after a fast eighth stage on Monday.

Both took different high-altitude routes down into Chile.

Roma and the cars undertook a 300-kilometre special from Salta, Argentina, over the Andes.

Roma endured two punctures on the stony track and finished sixth, losing eight minutes off his lead over defending champion Stephane Peterhansel of France. Peterhansel was down to 24 minutes off the pace. Giniel de Villiers of South Africa remained 48 minutes behind in third, and Orlando Terranova of Argentina stayed fourth, 51 minutes back. They were the only ones within an hour of Roma.

Peterhansel was second in the stage, about a minute behind winner Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar, who led in his Mini most of the way for his 18th Dakar stage victory. Carlos Sainz of Spain was third.

Coma and the motorbikes left from Uyuni, Bolivia, on a 460-kilometer trek around the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s biggest salt flats.

Coma, with a big overall lead, was happy to stay on the tail of his great rival, Cyril Despres of France, the titleholder who won his first stage of the year.

Despres beat Joan Barreda Bort of Spain and Coma by more than two minutes, but Despres was still more than two hours behind Coma overall.

Barreda remained second and 38 minutes behind Coma overall, and the only rider within an hour of the leader.

But the rally returns to the treacherous sand dunes on Tuesday, racing through the Atacama Desert from Calama to Iquique.

UAE-born Sebastian Husseini finished second in the quads, coming in 8 min 38 sec behind Ignacio Casale. He remains in fourth, a little under three hours behind third placed Rafal Sonik, and a little over three hours ahead of fifth-placed Qatari Mohamed Abu-Issa.