Toby Price finished second on the 835-kilometre marathon two-day stage 6 of the 2024 Dakar Rally to climb to fifth overall going into Saturday's rest day.
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Price finished day one in third place and after a bivouac night camped in a tent managed to finish second behind French rider Adrien Van Beveren after the 112km section on Friday.
The two-time Dakar champion is now 27 minutes behind the overall leader American Ricky Brabec.
It was an excellent stage for the Australian contingent with Daniel Sanders finishing fourth, 6m55s behind Van Beveren.
The result lifted him to seventh overall, 35m:55s behind the leader.
Botswana's Ross Branch is second overall, followed by Van Beveren, Chile's Jose Ignacio Cornejo, Price, reigning champion Kevin Benavides and Sanders in seventh.
Price said he was glad to finish a challenging first week.
"Overall, at the end of this first week, I'm feeling good, and the bike has been faultless," he said.
"We're not quite where we'd hoped we would be in terms of time, but there's still a whole second week to go, so we're ready for it."
The marathon stage was Price's best to date, finishing third on day one, which including 513km racing through dunes, and second after the 112km second section.
"The marathon stage has definitely been a little tougher than we thought it was going to be. It was such a long day yesterday - we did about 513 kilometers in the dunes and raced for around six hours and 40 minutes!
"At the bivouac, we were just given a sleeping bag, a tent, a small box of food rations and tried to get some sleep. Today was good - just 112 kilometers - and it felt great to reach the finish line."
"We all deserve our rest day, that's for sure."
Price was third on the short but technically demanding 118km stage five at the 2024 Dakar Rally.
It was welcome turn of fortunes after 15th on stage four after a navigational error cost him time.
He was ninth on stage 3 rising to seventh overall, after being seventh on stage 2 after 16th on the opening stage when he lost several minutes to technical issues.
Overall standings:
1. Ricky Brabec (USA), Honda, 27:11:21
2. Ross Branch (BWA), Hero, 27:12:12 +0:51
3. Adrien Van Beveren (FRA), Honda, 27:20:42 +9:21
4. Jose Ignacio Cornejo (CHL), Honda, 27:25:35 +14:14
5. Toby Price (AUS), KTM, 27:38:21 +27:00
6. Kevin Benavides (ARG), KTM, 27:39:54 +28:33
7. Daniel Sanders (AUS), Gogas, 27:47:11 +35:50
Michael Hartshorn
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
