Sebastien Loeb grabbed victory Sunday in the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally after Carlos Sainz was hit with a five-minute penalty.

The victory lifted Loeb to fourth overall but he remains almost two hours behind rally leader Nasser Al-Attiyah.

The 48-year-old Frenchman won the stage by 2 minutes and 11 seconds in his Prodrive from Qatari Al-Attiyah after 822 km of racing through valleys and sand between Al-Duwadimi and Riyadh. 

Loeb has had a wildly up-and-down race in his Prodrive. After bad days on Monday and Tuesday he won on Wednesday but rolled his car on Thursday and on Saturday lost more than 16 minutes.

“It was a good stage, a clean stage this time, for us,” said Loeb at the finish on Sunday. “Just one puncture, we had to change one wheel, but the rest was okay. We tried to make it a big one.”

Read the full story on sportsdesk.com.mt...

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