David Casteu continues to lead the 2013 Dakar Rally as it heads into stage nine.

Joan Barreda has scored himself the 2013 Dakar Rally stage eight win, meanwhile David Casteu bumped Olivier Pain from the top spot on the overall rankings.

Barreda, who started the stage in 21st place, took his third stage win of the rally with seven minutes to spare over American Johnny Campbell, followed by surprise guests such as Ivan Jakes in third, Pedro Bianchi Prata in fourth and Vincent Guindani rounding out the top five.

Navigational skills proved to play a large factor throughout stage eight, especially at the 122 kilometre point, where a group of riders lost almost half an hour, including stage seven winner Kurt Caselli.

Former overall leader, Olivier Pain, was one of these riders caught up in the navigational blunder. This mistake ended up costing him the lead, along with Francisco López, who lost his second place ranking and now sits fourth overall.

Cyril Despres, the defending champion, was forced to undertake an engine swap on his KTM, this enabled him to tackle the special stage, while avoiding navigational mistakes to zero in the overall lead.

Depres’ engine change cost him a 15-minute penalty and pushed him down to sixth place overall ahead of the second week of racing, when each rider’s strategic decision to change his engine or not will take on a new dimension.

Rod Faggotter now leads the group of Australian competitors in the rally, holding down 16th place overall. Behind him sits Ben Grabham, Todd Smith, Simon Pavey and Matt Fish in 21st, 49th, 68th and 138th positions, respectively.

The 2013 Dakar Rally is currently on a rest day, before stage one commences with Casteu leading the overall charge, followed closely by Despres and Ruben Faria.

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