Van Beveren beats Price to 48hr stage win

They had been first and third respectively when the front-runners reached Bivouac F for the overnight stop, before Price moved ahead of Monster Energy Honda’s Ricky Brabec in the 113km which remained for them on Friday.

However, it is Brabec, third on the Shubaytah stage, who is now in the lead of the rally overall, by a 51-second margin to Hero Motosports’ Ross Branch.

Brabec’s team-mate Van Beveren, who beat Price by 4:13s on Stage 6, is third overall at 9:21s off the pace, from Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo on another factory Honda.

Price sits fifth, exactly 27 minutes away from top spot, and his Red Bull KTM team-mate Kevin Benavides is another 1:33s behind in sixth.

Red Bull GasGas’s Daniel Sanders sits seventh, from Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Luciano Benavides, Slonaft KTM rider Stefan Svitko, and Duust KTM pilot Jeanloup Lepan, the latter of who holds sway in the Rally2 class.

There were two notable withdrawals on Stage 6, with Skyler Howes (Monster Energy Honda) going out on the opening day due to mechanical problems before a similar fate befell Joan Barreda Bort (Hero Motosports) the next morning.

Riders have now earned a rest day in Riyadh before the action resumes with a mammoth 873km stage taking them to Al Duwadimi on Sunday.

General classification: Bikes Top 10