The Monster Energy Honda rider prevailed on the day by 2:59s over team-mate Ricky Brabec and now holds a 1:15s margin over Hero Motosports’ Ross Branch at the top of the general classification.

Brabec is third overall at 4:56s off the pace and Red Bull KTM’s Kevin Benavides holds fourth at 20:39s adrift after setting the third-best stage time.

Of the Australians, Red Bull KTM’s Toby Price retains eighth overall but is now 34:54s away from top spot and Red Bull GasGas’s Daniel Sanders has dropped out of the top 10, with his deficit to the lead blowing out to almost 40 minutes.

With predominantly dirt track on the road between Al Salamiya to Al-Hofuf, the 299km special which made up Stage 4 promised to be a relatively quick one.

Branch was fastest to the first waypoint before Cornejo, among others, usurped him at Kilometre 82.

Brabec moved into second place at Kilometre 156 but Cornejo continued to stretch his margin on the day.

Nevertheless, Branch kept his nose in front in the virtual general classification until right at the end.

The Botswanan would finish Stage 4 with the fourth-fastest time, 4:26s slower than Cornejo and thus his 3:11s event lead at the start of the day had been overturned.

Price was never really in the hunt for a stage win, dropping about seven minutes between the first two waypoints and ultimately ceding 15:08s relative to Cornejo.

Sanders’ day was not looking a whole lot better and it got even worse when he stopped for several minutes just prior to the Kilometre 229 waypoint.

‘Chucky’ is now 11th in the general classification, 39:43s away from first spot.

Stage 5 runs from Al-Hofuf to Shubaytah and while a total of 645km of riding is on the cards, just 118km of that is the special, although the extent of sand dunes promises to challenge competitors.

General classification: Bikes Top 10

11th Daniel Sanders +0:39:43