Henk Lategan takes to the air in his Toyota on the way to a second-place finish in Stage 8 of the Dakar Rally

Paris (France) (AFP) - Saood Variawa led a South African one-two in the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia on Monday ahead of Toyota team-mate Henk Lategan.

Variawa, who last year became the youngest stage winner in race history, completed the 483-kilometre circuit that started and ended in Wadi Ad Dawasir in four hours, 20 minutes and 35 seconds, just three seconds ahead of Lategan.

Swede Mattias Ekstrom was third, 29 seconds behind in a Ford.

“The car was perfect on a very long stage on which it was difficult to keep up with the pace,” said Variawa.

“In the dunes, we navigated well while a lot of others got lost. At times we went our own way and perhaps that’s where we made a difference. We pushed and overtook other cars. It was difficult in the dust.”

Five-time Dakar winner Nasser Al Attiyah finished fifth in his Dacia but the Qatari retained the overall lead, four minutes ahead of Ekstrom.

“It was a nice and fast stage with a bit of everything, dunes, fast tracks,” said veteran Sebastien Loeb who finished eighth. “It was pretty nice to drive. It was long, though: 480 km is a lot.”

Argentinian Luciano Benavides won his second straight stage in the motorbike class, finishing 4min 50sec ahead of KTM team-mate Daniel Sanders, to take first overall by 10 seconds over the Australian.