The two-time Dakar champion is now classified 16th at 23:20s behind leader Ross Branch, once the latter was credited with the time he took to assist the injured Tosha Schareina.

Most of Price’s time was lost around the location where Schareina crashed and the Spaniard originally said his rear wheel struck something while trying to pass the Australian.

For Price, however, it was a technical issue of his own which made his day more difficult.

“They promised rocks today and it was definitely rocky – it was all quite tricky to get through while staying focused on the roadbook,” said the Red Bull KTM rider.

“I did have a small issue before the refueling that cost me some minutes, but thankfully I was able to fix that and carry on afterwards.

“I’ve lost a little bit of time on the early leaders, but I’m here safe at the finish and we have a lot of kilometers to race ahead of us.

“Today’s stage has already shown that the Dakar is tough and can throw up some surprises, so my plan, as always, is to stay consistent and do my best day by day.”

Schareina had won the Prologue and he was one of three notables to crash out on Stage 1 alone.

Michael Docherty inherited the outright stage lead until he too went down, and 2022 stage winner Joaquim Rodrigues has also withdrawn after a crash.

Price’s fellow Australian, Daniel Sanders, battled injury again in 2023.

Despite questions of fitness coming into Dakar 2024, the Red Bull GasGas rider is ninth after Stage 1.

“We were rock ‘n’ rolling out there today,” he said.

“I wish I set the bike up a little differently for today as for the first stage, it was pretty gnarly. It kinda feels like we’ve done five days already.

“The priority for today was to not crash and I didn’t, so I was happy to reach the finish with no problems.

“With the team we’ll make a few bike set-up changes for tomorrow and go again.”

Stage 2 starts this afternoon (AEDT).