Stage 8 - Dakar 2025: Van Beveren 2nd, Schareina 3rd

At Monday’s Stage 8, Schareina joined his Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally teammate Adrien Van Beveren on the podium and, in the process, cut more than four and a half minutes off the lead time of Sanders with four stages remaining in the contest – Round 1 of the 2025 FIM World Rally-Raid Championship. Van Beveren actually finished as the runner up in the stage, six seconds ahead of 3^rd place Schareina. Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally teammates Ricky Brabec and Skyler Howes would clock in with the 4^th and 5^th positions, respectively, in Monday’s Monster/Honda dominated performance.

“We had another long day, but I tried to push to take time – and we did it,” said Schareina. “After refueling I caught Nacho (Cornejo, Hero Motosports, fueled by Monster Energy), then pushed for Ricky (Brabec) and Adrien (Van Beveren). After that we were riding together until the finish line, trying to catch some bonus time.

“We are in a good position and ready to battle tomorrow on Stage 9.”

While things were going well for the aforementioned Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally racers, their teammate, Pablo Quintanilla, who was currently 7^th overall in time, suffered a gnarly get-off and was taken from the race to the hospital with a reported minor concussion. Because of the medical team assistance, Quintanilla is now eliminated from the race.

LOOKING FOR A VIDEP RECAP? CHECK OUT STAGE 8 HIGHLIGHTS!

Overall… Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally racers cut a four and a half minute chunk out of race leader Daniel Sanders’ (KTM) overall time. 2^nd place overall Schareina is now just over 11 minutes (11:03) back of Sanders, while 3^rd place Van Beveren and 5^th place Brabec are back 21 and 30 minutes, respectively.

Heading down the home stretch, Tuesday’s Stage 9 (of 12), will run from Riyadh to Haradh, a 589 km jaunt with 357 km’s of Special. Fast tracks await the competition field on the southern run to Haradh. Top speeds, with compromised grip strength and weakened senses after nine stages of racing (with only one Rest Day), could spell disaster for some. But the bottom line is… you’ve gotta push to win.

Said Brabec: “Stage 8 was a good one. We started a little bit back, so today was the day to make a good push and try to claw back at the overall position – and get closer to the podium. I felt good all day. Rode good all day – as fast as we could and doing really well. All the times, all the refueling, and then we lost a teammate out of the race, due to a crash. Fortunately Pablo (Quintanilla) looks to be OK. But unfortunately, the racers that stopped for him got back far more time than they should have. It’s a shame. I think the tablets aren’t as good as they thought they were. There’s really no way to judge the time stopped, or the time allotted to give back to someone. I think they’re making things up as they go and it’s unfair. The unfair advantage are tough to deal with over here when you’re just trying to play by the rules. But, with a couple days left, we’ll keep pushing and hope to finish strong, get to the end of the Dakar healthy and in one piece.”

Said Cornejo: “Busy day. Basically I’m pretty good. Hanging in there pretty good. I’d say today was a good stage. Felt comfortable on the bike. Had a lot of fun. Last part I did a couple of mistakes, lost a couple of minutes. But all in all a good day. We survive to fight another day. And tomorrow should be a good day, too.”

Said Howes: “Yeah, Stage 8 was a positive day for me. Started out with some gravel tracks with some tricky navigation, rocky canyons and riverbeds. I had a bit of a crash at kilometer 50. I swapped out and kind of slid into a big ravine. Twisted the front end of the bike, so I had to straighten that out before I got going again. Lost a little bit of time there. Things opened up and the stage was fast after that. I ended up riding along all day and just focused on riding smooth, hitting the navigation good, keeping the high pace while riding comfortable. The stage finished off in some dunes that flowed really nice. Little bit wet, too, so they were nice and tacky and fun to ride. 5^th on the stage and looking forward to the last few days. Heading down into the Empty Quarter and hitting some more dunes.”

Stage 8 Notes:

Rough ending for Quintanilla at his 13^th Dakar Rally – the most on the Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally team. Reports from the course indicated that Quintanilla wadded up his Honda 450 Rally in an intersection, hitting an offset edge, at speed, while braking late. No broken bones reported (as of press time), but he was banged up quite a bit, and unable to complete the contest.
Said Quintanilla: “I was on a high speed piste which had many intersections and one of them had a really high edge. I was pushing and saw it at the last minute, so I couldn’t avoid it. … The last thing I remember was when I woke up and Adrien (Van Beveren) was there helping me. It was quite a hard situation because of the pain and also because at that moment I realized that I was out of the race.”
Stopping to render assistance to his fallen teammate was Van Beveren. The French racer, currently 3^rd overall in the standings, was running behind in Stage 8 due to a navigational miscalculation. And, in a show of rider unity, Van Beveren was joined by KTM racer Luciano Benavides. Once going again, both racers would be credited with 30 minutes of time taken off their overall Stage 8 time. This would result in Benavides winning Stage 8, with Van Beveren finishing 2^nd, 2:08 behind.
Brabec, who questioned the 30 minutes of “stationary time” given back to both his teammate, Van Beveren and Benevides (see above Brabec quote), would grab the 4^th position in Stage 8, followed by his fellow American teammate, Howes, in 5^th to give Monster Energy/Honda HRC Rally team four of the five top positions in Stage 8.

Monster Energy Dakar Stage 8 Motorcycle Results

Place/Name/Team/Time

2^nd – Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy/Honda)
04:52:54 (- minus 00:02:08)

3^rd – Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy/Honda)
04:53:00 (- minus 00:02:14)

4^th – Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy/Honda)
04:55:07 (- minus 00:04:21)

5^th – Skyler Howes (Monster Energy/Honda)
04:55:45 (- minus 00:04:59)

Monster Energy Dakar Motorcycle Standings (after Stage 8)

Place/Name/Team/Time

2^nd – Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy/Honda)
44:37:55 (- minus 00:11:03)

3^rd– Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy/Honda)
44:48:23 (- minus 00:21:13)

5^th – Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy/Honda)
44:57:48 (- minus 00:30:56)

Monster Energy Dakar SSV Class

Stage 8 SSV Results

6^th – Sara Price (Can-Am Factory Team)
(- minus 00:11:27)

Overall

26^th – Sara Price (Can-Am Factory Team)
127:16:51 (- minus 58:02:10)

Up next…

Heading down the home stretch, Tuesday’s Stage 9 (of 12), will run from Riyadh to Haradh, a 589 km jaunt with 357 km’s of Special. Fast tracks await the competition field on the southern run to Haradh. Top speeds, with compromised grip strength and weakened senses after nine stages of racing (with only one Rest Day), could spell disaster for some. But the bottom line is… you’ve gotta push to win. For more information, including “Live” timing and scoring, visit www.dakar.com