TOBY Price claimed victory on Stage 13 of the Dakar Rally as teammate Matthias Walkner edged closer to overall victory.

Price - who also won Stage 11 - was fastest to all but the first waypoint on the event’s penultimate stage, battling Kevin Benavides and Antoine Meo the whole way before finishing two minutes clear of each to tighten his hold on third overall.

In the car category, Stephane Peterhansel’s hopes of a podium have faded with a crash at the 78km mark on a stage won by Nasser Al-Attiyah, while Carlos Sainz edged closer to his second Dakar win with a sixth place.

The bikes and cars took different competitive routes between San Juan and Córdoba, travelling 483km and 560km respectively through sand dunes and areas of fine, soft sand called fesh-fesh.

MOTORCYCLE CATEGORY

With the cancellation of Stage 12 further reducing his chances to regain ground, Price pushed hard throughout the test.

“I was trying to win both the stage and second place,” Price said.

“The navigation was not so bad today. It was good, but there were a lot of speed zones in this second part.

“You had to be pretty careful and precise to make sure you don’t do any over-speeding.

“We had a couple of off-track excursions but other than this the stage went really well and we navigated well the whole day.”

The victory allowed him to claw back two minutes in the overall standings on second-placed Benavides and over 11 minutes on rally leader Walkner.

However, with only a short 120km test to end the rally, bridging the five-minute deficit to Benavides - who is pushing hard to record a stage win on his home Argentinian soil - will be tough.

Barring penalties or crashes, Walkner looks on-course to claim his first overall win on the Dakar, the Austrian holding a 22m30s lead over Benavides.

Should the Austrian make it through the final stage cleanly it will be a momentous triumph; it will be an Austrian rider’s first win in the motorcycle class and the country’s first outright win on Dakar since 1997, while KTM would extend their streak of Dakar wins to 18.

Honda suffered another blow on the penultimate stage, Ricky Brabec retiring from sixth overall with a mechanical issue, his bike reportedly catching fire.

Once again the Japanese manufacturer appears set to fall short in its bid to prise fierce rival KTM from its Dakar throne, while lead Honda rider Joan Barreda will again have to wait until next year to score his maiden Dakar win after his knee injury forced him to retire on the previous stage.

The full contingent of Australian competitors looks set to finish the Dakar, Rodney Faggotter is through the seventh waypoint and Scott Britnell through the fifth.

TOP 5 — Stage 13 from San Juan to Córdoba

1. (8) Toby Price (KTM) 4h48m33s

2. (47) Kevin Benavides (Honda) +2m03s

3. (19) Antoine Meo (KTM) +2m44s

4. (2) Matthias Walkner (KTM) +11m32s

5. (12) Juan Pedrero Garcia (Sherco TVS) +15m12s21. (44) Rodney Faggotter (Yamaha) +41m54s 63. (97) Scott Britnell (KTM) +2h11m00s

OVERALL STANDINGS after Stage 13

1. (2) Matthias Walkner (KTM) 41h33m42s

2. (47) Kevin Benavides (Honda) +22m31s

3. (8) Toby Price (KTM) +27m45s

4. (19) Antoine Meo (KTM) +50m17s

5. (3) Gerard Farres (KTM) +1h01m19s

6. (40) Johnny Aubert (Gas Gas) +1h55m12s

7. (10) Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) +2h06m49s

8. (61) Oriol Mena (Hero) +2h23m29s

9. (29) Daniel Oliveras Carreras (KTM) +2h39m33s

10. (68) Juan Ignacio Cornejo Florimo (Honda) +2h40m17s

16. (44) Rodney Faggotter (Yamaha) +3h51m36s
61. (97) Scott Britnell (KTM) +22h33m01s

Italics denote Australian riders

CAR CATEGORY

Dakar 2018 had one last sting in the tail for Peterhansel on Stage 13.

After climbing back up to second place after his disastrous Stage 7 ‘Mr Dakar’ again encountered a hidden obstacle with his Peugeot, hitting a tree hidden by a bump and breaking a steering rod and the car’s power steering. Adding injury to insult, Peterhansel also sprained his thumb.

The third Peugeot of Cyril Despres once again stopped to donate parts and assistance to his teammate, but the hour lost leaves him eight minutes shy of the podium in fourth overall heading to the final stage.

“We attacked a descent and couldn’t avoid touching a tree, which did some damage to the front left of our PEUGEOT 3008DKR Maxi,” Peterhansel said.

“This sadly ends any chance of achieving the one-two we hoped for. We are very disappointed for the whole team.”

On the flip side for Peugeot, Sainz finished sixth on the day but holds a comfortable 46 minute margin with just 120 competitive kilometres remaining.

“The upsets today show that the race isn’t over yet,” he said. “I hope everything will be fine tomorrow.”

The day belonged to Toyota, Nasser Al-Attiyah collecting his fourth stage win of the event to move into second overall.

“It was a very hard and very long day with 1000 km in total with the stage and link. It’s a long day for us,” he said.

“I’m quite happy to be here and finished now that we are in second place. This is really a great moment.”

Argentinian Toyota driver Lucio Alvarez soared to second on the stage and moved into the top 10 overall, but at the expense of works Hilux pilot Bernhard Ten Brinke.

The Dutchman was fourth overall heading into the test but a mechanical problem forced him to retire halfway through the stage.

TOP 5 — Stage 13 from San Juan to Córdoba

1. (301) Al-Attiyah/Baumel (Toyota) 5h02m22s

2. (318) Alvarez/Howie (Toyota) +11m16s

3. (304) De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz (Toyota) +13m06s

4. (312) Przygonski/Colsoul (Mini) +15m07s

5. (305) Hirvonen/Schulz (Mini) +19m24s

OVERALL STANDINGS after Stage 13

1. (303) Sainz/Cruz (Peugeot) 47h46m30s

2. (301) Al-Attiyah/Baumel (Toyota) +46m18s

3. (304) De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz (Toyota) +1h20m00s

4. (300) Peterhansel/Cottret (Peugeot) +1h28m08s

5. (312) Przygonski/Colsoul (Mini) +2h46m32s

6. (319) Al Qassimi/Panseri (Peugeot) +4h20m40s

7. (311) Prokop/Tomanek (Ford) +7h21m55s

8. (334) Van Merksteijn/Marton (Toyota) +7h42m41s

9. (331) Halpern/Pulenta (Toyota) +9h09m04s

10. (318) Alvarez/Howie (Toyota) +9h21m22s