Quintanilla wins Dakar Stage 5, Price third

There was also change at the very top of the general classification with Hero Motosports’ Ross Branch reclaiming the lead from Monster Energy Honda’s Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo.

Branch’s advantage is 1:14s, after he had trailed Cornejo by 1:15s at the start of the day, with Ricky Brabec 3:47s off the pace in third on another factory Honda entry.

Red Bull KTM’s Price remains eighth overall but has crept slightly closer to top spot, which he now trails by 31:36s, and it was a similar story for fellow Australian Daniel Sanders.

The Red Bull GasGas rider climbed from 11th back to ninth in the general classification, albeit 37:44s off the pace, after setting the fourth-quickest stage time of the day.

It was indeed a quick stage, the special between Al-Hofuf and Shubaytah being the very shortest of Dakar 2024 at just 118km long.

Rally2 class rider Bruno Santos (Xraids Experience Husqvarna), on the other hand, was 44th to set off and clocked the fastest split to the Kilometre 39 waypoint.

He could not sustain the pace though, with Quintanilla riding his factory-entered Honda into the ascendancy at Kilometre 80 and prevailing by 37 seconds over team-mate Adrien Van Beveren at the day’s finish line.

Price was 1:02s further back while Brabec, who collected 11 seconds’ worth of opener bonuses, grabbed seventh for the stage after running as high as fourth, at Kilometre 80.

Stage 6 is the ’48-hour stage’, a new concept which promises to provide an even sterner test to riders.

The special stage component totals 626km over two days, with navigation said to be even more difficult than usual, and riders will not have any information about stage classification at the overnight stop, let alone assistance from crews.

Furthermore, as chains of dunes await, the starting order has been flipped on its head.

Instead of the previous day’s pace-setters opening the road, the slowest RallyGP rider of Stage 5 will go first, then the next-slowest, and so on until all 17 have departed.

The rider with the dubious honour of being the first to tackle the inaugural 48-hour stage is therefore Joan Barreda Bort (Hero Motosports), who was 27th-quickest in outright after at least two falls today.

General classification: Bikes Top 10