Toby Price and Daniel Sanders have endured a difficult day in the sands of Arabia on the fourth stage of the Dakar rally.
Both Australians lost ground on Tuesday's 299km stage from Al Salamiya to the oasis city of Al Hofuf, but with the event lasting two weeks there remains much ground to cover.
Price finished 15th on his KTM, 15 minutes adrift of stage winner Nacho Cornejo of Chile, who also took the overall lead after his second stage win of this year's race.
Price is now eighth in the standings, 34:54 behind Cornejo.
"First part of the stage today was pretty good, towards the end there was a lot of spectators and lines so was confusing," he posted on social media.
"Made it to the finish, not really happy with where we are at the moment but still have a lot more to come…," added Price.
Sanders was five places further back in his GasGas, 18 mins, 41 secs off the lead and is now 11th overall, 39:43 off the pace.
Botswana's overnight leader Ross Branch reached the finish with twisted handlebars, but still came fourth on the day and is second overall, 1:15 behind.
"It was a rough day for me, one of the days I'd rather forget. I crashed after 40 km just trying to look at the roadbook and I hit a rock," said Branch. "Then I crashed again 20 km before the finish just going into the dunes."
Third stage winner Kevin Benavides was third on his 35th birthday, and now lies fourth with American Ricky Brabec third overall after finishing second in the stage.
In the car category Sebastien Loeb took the stage as home favourite Yazeed Al Rajhi stretched his overall lead.
Nine-times world rally champion Loeb, racing a Prodrive Hunter for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, finished the stage one minute and eight seconds faster than the Toyota of Saudi Arabian Al Rajhi.
Audi's Spanish triple Dakar winner Carlos Sainz, fourth in the stage, trails in second by four minutes and 29 seconds. Frenchman Loeb moved up to sixth overall.
with Reuters
