João Ferreira (Toyota), Portuguese driver, finished 17th in the eighth stage of the 48th off-road edition of the Dakar Rally. The winner was South African Saood Variawa (Toyota), who completed the 483 kilometers in 4:20.35 hours, 7.25 minutes less than João Ferreira. Ferreira, remember, came second in the previous stage. Despite a place lower, the Portuguese managed to climb to tenth place in the general car classification. Categoria SSV Still in cars, Portuguese João Monteiro (Can-Am) entered the podium in the SSV class, rising to second place. The Portuguese driver is only behind the North American Brock Heger (Polaris), who has a 47.09 minute advantage over the Portuguese driver. Gonçalo Guerreiro (Polaris), who was fifth in the SSV class, was forced to abandon the race due to an accident, which raised the suspicion of a broken arm. Categoria Challenger Also in cars, in the Challenger category, there are two Portuguese in the top 10 of the general classification, which is led by Spaniard Pau Navarro (BBR). Rui Carneiro (MMP) is ninth and Pedro Gonçalves (BBR) is tenth. Motos In the Motorcycle category, Martim Ventura (Honda) finished tenth, 19.20 minutes behind the winner, Benavides, who finished with a time of 4:26.39 hours. Martim Ventura rose from 17th to 14th place overall, 3:38.52 hours behind Benavides. Bruno Santos finished 20th in the eighth stage, taking 18th position in the general classification. On Tuesday, the ninth stage of the 2026 Dakar takes place, which marks the beginning of the second marathon of this edition, between Wadi Ad-Dawasir and the «bivouac» in Bisha, with a length of 418 timed kilometers.