SANTIAGO, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chilean Francisco Lopez won on Sunday the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally Argentina-Chile 2010 at motorbikes category, timing 5 hours, 29 minutes and 25 seconds.

    Lopez began the stage at place 17th after the series of troubles he had on Friday.

    After wining the eighth stage, Lopez said that his main concern was the fuel, "due to the dunes, we used a bigger tank for this stage and it worked fine."

    After this result, Lopez is at third place now of the general standing and he added that "I am very happy, I think we are achieving the goal, which is to fight for the first place."

    Meanwhile, Spaniard Marc Coma of KTM team arrived in second place 42 seconds behind, and Norwegian Pal Ullevalseter of KTM team arrived in third place 01:22 behind of Lopez.

    Following are the overall standing at the motorbike category:

    1. Cyril Despres (France/KTM) 33 hours 46 minutes 21 seconds

    2. Paul Ullevalseter (Norway/KTM) 1:20.31 behind

    3. Francisco Lopez (Chile/Aprilia) 01:24.21

    4. Helder Rodrigues (Portugal/Yamaha) 1:25.15     5. Alain Duclos (France/KTM) 1:52.29