Price finished third on the stage behind KTM teammate Antoine Meo and Honda’s Ricky Brabec.

Stage nine of the rally was cancelled on Monday with the rally to resume on Tuesday and despite an arduous two days covering almost 1000 kilometres, Price is unsure whether the rest will be a blessing. .

“The bike went really well today but I’m feeling a little second hand after these two big days now behind us,” Price posted.

“It has been a really long couple of marathon stages for us, yesterday’s stage was around 430+ kilometres and today we had a 490+ kilometre stage, so almost 1000 kilometres of special stage.

“We actually have a rest day tomorrow which is kind of good and kind of bad at the same time because everyone will have that extra edge moving into stage nine. 

I’m really looking forward to moving into Argentina and those stages, I think they’re going to be pretty difficult from the previous years we’ve had there. 

“All in all everything is going really good and we’re in a good position, we’ve got a lot of kilometres ahead of us and I’m really looking forward to ticking them off!"

Price is seven minutes, 35 seconds behind leader Adrien van Beveren, from France, who holds a 22 second advantage over Argentinian Kevin Benavides.

Austrian Matthias Walkner is third, one minute clear of Price, the 2016 Dakar champion

It has been a big three days for Price, who continues to loom large in 2018 Dakar Rally contention after finishing third in stage eight, fourth on stage seven and second on stage six.

Dakar 2018 – Overall Classification – After Stage 8

1  Adrien van Beveren (Yamaha) 27h22m03s

2  Kevin Benavides (Honda) 0m22s

3  Matthias Walkner (KTM) 6m34s

4  Toby Price (KTM) 7m35s

5  Joan Barreda (Honda) 8m01s

6  Antoine Meo (KTM) 9m56s

7  Stefan Svitko (KTM) 31m55s

8  Ricky Brabec (Honda) 31m58s

9  Gerard Farres (KTM) 45m52s

10  Johnny Aubert (Gas Gas) 1h09m02s