Tech3 KTM’s Danilo Petrucci was the 25th rider to attack Dakar’s ninth stage, a 287km special across the Saudi desert.

Tuesday’s performance was off to a rapid start as the ex-MotoGP rider claimed the third fastest time after 40 km of action, maintaining top ten pace for the majority of the day.

Electronics issues towards the end of the stage hindered the Italian’s progress, however, and he completed the stage 18th, less than nine minutes behind Monster Energy Honda’s eventual winner Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Cornejo. KTM’s Matthais Walkner reclaimed the lead in the overall classification, two minutes ahead of Sam Sunderland.

“I had a good day today,” Petrucci explained. “I’m really happy with my riding and was able to match the speed of the top guys for much of the stage. Unfortunately, I did have a small technical issue that caused me to stop a couple of times, but thankfully, I didn’t lose too much time.

“It might not be too much of a bad thing because I have a good start position for tomorrow now and I hope to be able to really push once again.”