The battle for overall supremacy tightened up not just with Hero Motosports’ Ross Branch closing the gap to Monster Energy Honda’s Brabec, but also because Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo won the 483km Riyadh-Al Duwadimi special to move to 6:48s off top spot.

On another factory Honda, Adrien Van Beveren went the other way, dropping to fourth at 14:39s off the pace, with Red Bull KTM’s Kevin Benavides back up to fifth but still 21:39s away from the lead.

For Price, after making inroads on each of the previous two stages, the goal of a third Dakar crown just became that much more difficult to pull off as the Red Bull KTM rider dropped to sixth overall.

Fellow Australian Daniel Sanders retains seventh but at a slightly enlarged deficit of 27:41s relative to top spot.

READ MORE: Price laments “way too many” mistakes

Following the rest day, 873km of riding awaited competitors on Stage 7, with a special which began in the canyons before moving into sand dunes.

Pablo Quintanilla, already out of contention for the event victory after running out of fuel on the 48-hour stage, was the day’s early leader.

However, he then dumped another hour of time when his Monster Energy Honda struck mechanical dramas at 112km in.

From there, the battle for stage honours became a two-way fight between Cornejo and Kevin Benavides, with the former prevailing by 32 seconds over the latter.

Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Luciano Benavides finished 3:12s behind in third while Branch lost touch over the course of the special as he set the fourth-fastest time.

In the end, with the help of opener bonuses, Brabec did just enough in taking fifth for the special to hold onto his overall lead, by the slimmest of margins.

Sanders was sixth-quickest on the day and Price eighth-, despite the latter scooping almost four minutes’ worth of opener bonuses.

Five stages remain in Dakar 2024, the next taking the field to Ha’il, with a mixture of sand and stones laying in wait.

General classification: Bikes Top 10