Debut-making Australian rider Toby Price has cracked the top five in the second stage of the Dakar Rally in Argentina.
The 27-year-old from Maitland clinched fifth place overall for the motorcycle category in the longest stretch of the gruelling event, finishing just 11 minutes and 32 seconds shy of the leader, Spaniard Joan Barreda Bort.
The Dakar Rally is the world's toughest off-road race, where drivers cover more than 9000 kilometres through Argentina, Bolivia and Chile over 14 days.
The KTM rider said he was extremely happy with the result, despite getting "cooked" in the dunes on the hottest day yet at 42C.
"Today was a good day for me!" he wrote on his Facebook page.
"We got through first 300km really well at a fast pace, the navigation wasn't too hard but you still had to really stay on top of your road book."
The rookie ran into some trouble trying to pass another rider beyond the 300km mark.
"I thought I might have missed a waypoint and started to second guess myself," he said.
"I then back tracked to find the waypoint and found myself back where I turned around, to be honest it was all over the shop! It just goes to show how much experience you need to master this crazy race."
Price landed the Finke, Hattah, AORC, and Desert Tri-Series crowns in Australia in 2014, as well as a top-10 finish in his first international FIM rally, The Morocco Rally.
Car category frontrunner Nasser Al-Attiyah also bounced back from being stripped of victory in the opening stage by taking the overall lead.
Driving a Mini, Al-Attiyah had claimed victory on Sunday (Monday AEDT) only to earn a two-minute penalty that relegated him to seventh place for clocking 68km/h in a section limited to 50km/h.
But the Qatari, the 2011 champion, finished eight and a half minutes clear of South Africa's Giniel de Villiers to take the overall lead following the 518km second stage from Villa Carlos Paz to San Juan.
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