KTM’s Toby Price has continued to establish himself as the surprise packet of the Dakar, posting his third-straight top five finish – a stunning fourth place – in a trying, weather-shortened eighth stage from Uyuni to Iquique.

Part two of a marathon leg in which competitors were allowed no overnight assistance from their teams, today’s section proved devastating as competitors kicked off at nearly 4000 metres altitude, into the world’s largest salt lake, which had been affected by rain.

The salt and water in solution was described as “like a kind of cement” by defending champion and Dakar legend Marc Coma, clogging many of the bikes and doing no favours to electronics as well as causing several shakeups at the top of the leaderboard and creating massive attrition in the overall standings.

Chilean KTM rider Pablo Quintanilla won the stage from Pedrero Garcia and Slovakian Stefan Svitko with fourth-placed Price only 41 seconds behind the winner.

Toby Price: “For me it was just a matter of preserving the bike and trying to get to the finish. It’s still in one piece and I am just hoping I can get to the finish line.”

KTM’s Marc Coma now takes over leadership of the Dakar from Paolo Goncalves, with a quartet of KTMs in tow: Quintanilla (11 minutes), Price (15 minutes), Svitko (26 minutes) and Ruben Faria (34 minutes).

With Bolivia behind them for 2015, the Dakar competitors will tomorrow farewell the Atacama Desert in a 538 kilometre journey from Iquique to Calama, with 450 kilometres of timed special stage including 50 plus kilometres of dunes.