Benavides’ stage victory was his and KTM’s second of the event, this time by a 31-second margin over brother Luciano of sister team Husqvarna Factory Racing.

On the other factory KTM entry, Toby Price was fifth on the day and retains sixth overall, at a reduced 29:10s deficit relative to Brabec.

The latter set the seventh-fastest time of the Al Duwadimi-Ha’il stage on his Monster Energy Honda but beat his nearest rival for the Dakar 2024 crown, Hero Motorsports’ Ross Branch, by 41 seconds.

Still, that was a let-off for Branch given how Brabec had started the special.

From fifth in the road order, the American set the pace through the sand and dunes which made up most of the first 165km.

After a 179km transfer section it did not take long for team-mate Adrien Van Beveren to hit the front with just over 50km to go, as the route moved into dirt tracks.

The Benavides brothers swooped in the closing stages of the 458km special, to consolidate fifth and eighth respectively in the general classification.

Van Beveren finished third on the day, from team-mate Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo, who is now just 4:21s from the overall lead.

Price finished 2:18s off the pace and fellow Australian Daniel Sanders was ninth on his Red Bull GasGas at 5:10s from top spot, meaning he stayed seventh overall but has drifted further to 38:43s from the lead.

Stage 9 runs from Ha’il to AlUla, including a 417km special.

General classification: Bikes Top 10