Dakar 2022, Stage 5: Price beats Petrucci to victory

After a tough day on Wednesday, Price was among the leaders throughout the stage, a 346km loop around the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, but only took the lead at the penultimate waypoint.

Leading most of the stage was GasGas rider Daniel Sanders, who led Honda's Kevin Benavides by around two minutes before dropping 12m41s at the 311km mark.

With defending champion Benavides also losing ground, that opened the door for Price to notch up his 14th career stage win by a margin of 2m04s.

Dakar debutant Petrucci continued his impressive run of performances by finishing runner-up to Price, going one place better than he managed on Wednesday, but his retirement from Stage 2 means the Italian is not in contention for overall honours.

Overnight leader Sam Sunderland was 13th on the stage, dropping some 12 minutes to Price, but the GasGas rider remains at the head of the general classification with a reduced margin of 2m29s over another KTM rider, Mathias Walkner.

Adrien van Beveren remains third for Yamaha, just under six minutes off the lead, with Sanders holding fourth despite his late time loss.

The big mover on the overall leaderboard was American Skyler Howes, who jumped to fifth on the best of the Husqvarna machines, followed by Sherco's Lorenzo Santolino and Honda's Pablo Quintanilla.

Third on the stage behind Price and Petrucci has enabled Ross Branch to move up to eighth on the second Yamaha, with Benavides and KTM privateer Stefan Svitko completing the top 10.

Wednesday stage winner Joan Barreda conceded 21 minutes on the stage to drop to 11th overall, 23 minutes behind the leaders, while Price sits 12th with a deficit of just over 31 minutes to Sunderland.

Standings after Stage 5: