Australia’s Toby Price perseverance during an exhausting sector of the Dakar Rally has been rewarded with a rise to third in the motorcycle race standings.
Price is riding through the pain barrier in Peru with a pre-race wrist injury, and although he floundered part way through the 511km fourth stage through Peru’s coastal desert he still managed to improve from fifth.
The 2016 champion is now 4 minutes 22 seconds adrift of new leader, American Ricky Brabec with six stages remaining.
“It was a long stage and a lot of it was made up of rocky tracks and rivers, they are the worst for my wrist,” Price said.
“I did have one get-off along the way, but luckily (it wasn’t) not too bad.”
Brabec won the stage and replaced Pablo Quintanilla atop the standings, with a 2 min 19 sec lead over the Chilean.
In the car race, Qatar’s two-time Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah extended his lead to 8 min 55 sec over Stephane Peterhansel by claiming the trawl south from Arequipa to Tacna.
Nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb suffered three punctures and lost 12 minutes to Al-Attiyah, while still moving up to sixth in his privately-entered Peugeot.
Reigning champion Carlos Sainz was 23rd and four hours and 40 minutes off the leader’s pace after a nightmare stage on Wednesday.