Dakar 2020: Alonso is one step away from his first stage victory at the Dakar

The Spaniard concludes the eighth stage in second position, at 4:04 from the French Serradori. Sainz stays in front of the general

Fernando Alonso (Toyota) stayed on the verge of his first victory in the Dakar Rally, at the end behind the French Mathieu Serradori (Century) in the eighth stage, a special 477 kilometers timed starting and finishing at Wadi Al Dawasir, while Carlos Sainz (Mini) continues to lead. Serradori achieved the first victory of his career at the Dakar, beating Alonso at 4:04 at the finish line. In the fight for the general, Sainz continues to lead with 6:40 of advantage over his pursuer Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota), which has cut him more than three minutes on Monday.

The French, who in his first participation in cars last year had to leave in the fourth stage, marched eighth in the classification with a fourth place as the best result in a stage, numbers similar to those of Alonso, with which he starred in the hand at the hand of the day.

The double champion of Formula 1 was wasting time little by little until he reached the equator of the four-minute course of Serradori, a distance that remained stable until the end while the rest of the candidates lost more and more time, including the first three of the general Finally, Alonso, thirteenth in the general, came second to finish at 4:04 of the winner and the Argentine Orlando Terranova (Mini) completed the podium of the day.

As for the applicants for the title, Carlos Sainz again have the disadvantage of having to open track and was immediately captured by Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota) and Stphane peterhansel (Mini), although it managed to minimize damage at a stage that could have produced a much more burdensome result.

The favorites, far from the head

After several days distributing the first positions, the three arrived far from the head and the first was Peterhansel in ninth position 13 minutes from Serradori. Behind, Al-Attiyah finished almost 16 minutes and Sainz, fifteenth to more than 19.

Despite reaping its worst result with difference in this Dakar, the Madrid did not lose track of his rivals, whom he controls at all times, and only lost 3:20 in goal with the Qatar, which is now at 6: 40 of the leadership, while Peterhansel is still third at 13:09.

In the absence of four stages to conclude the Dakar, this Tuesday will be played the ninth, a special of 410 kilometers timed between Wadi Al Dawasir and Haradh. “The Dakar prepares its entry into the Empty Quarter – the Rub al-Jali- Desert with this long journey. To achieve this, precision piloting will be required, this time on mostly hard and broken soils that may prove reckless” , warn the test on its official website.