Price and Sanders in top four at midway

Australia’s Toby Price and Daniel Sanders have continued their good form by being in the mix to win the marathon 48-hour Stage 6 of the Dakar Rally.

Both Price and Sanders are inside the top four at the halfway point of the two-day stage in the dunes that starts and finishes in Shubaytah as competitors currently enjoy a well earned rest at the de ropes breakzone.

The chrono stage is a new innovation to the Dakar Rally where riders and drivers have to complete 549km across two days without any external assistance.

On the opening day they had to go as far as possible before 4pm when they had to stop at the next available bivouac but with seven spread across hundreds of kilometres the field is not in the same resting place.

In the bikes Frenchman Adrien van Beveren leads the way with a time of six hours, 30 minutes and 39 seconds.

Daniel Sanders surfs a sand dune during stage 6 of Dakar. image: Flavien Duhamel / Red Bull Content Pool

It is another Honda one-two as a minute and 21 seconds back is Ricky Brabec.

However, Price is hot on their heels, just a further 28 seconds behind Brabec on his KTM.

Sanders also enjoyed a productive day on his GasGas machine, coming home directly behind his compatriot in fourth.

“Chucky” is just over three and a half minutes away from van Beveren and a minute and 43 seconds adrift from Price.

It continues the pair’s strong form after they also finished third and fourth in the previous stage 5.

But the twist about stage six is they are currently only halfway there.

In a Dakar first the sixth stage is held over two days and although competitors are at the overnight resting zone, they have no access to timing and have no idea where they are positioned.

Carlos Sainz has driven his way back into the lead of the 2024 Dakar Rally. Image: Marcelo Maragni / Red Bull Content Pool

In the cars Carlos Sainz Senior is back in charge of the Dakar Rally after an eventful first half of stage 6.

Sainz and Audi were the dominant force across the first day of the chrono stage, with the Spaniard leading throughout the day in his Audi.

Following him in provisional second was teammate Mattias Ekstrom to make it an Audi 1-2.

Fellow Audi Stephane Peterhansel was also showing strong pace until he was hit by a number of technical issues that saw nearly two hours go down the drain.

As a result Sainz leads Ekstrom by 15 minutes while Al-Attiyah is a further six minutes back.

In addition to Sainz snatching the overall lead from Nasser Al-Attiyah, his drive was assisted by misfortunate to another major rival.

The victory hopes of home hero Yazeed Al-Rajhi are over after the Saudi Arabian driver crashed his Toyota Hilux into a dune and was forced to retire.

Main image: Flavien Duhamel / Red Bull Content Pool

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