This is a big day for KTM. The Austrian marque lit up the night by putting two riders on the podium at the prestigious Anaheim round of US Supercross (with Eli Tomac taking the win and Jorge Prado third). A few hours later, the Clockwork Orange has pulled off the same trick in stage 7 of the Dakar.

Luciano Benavides led the stage from A to Z, while Daniel Sanders came home third, 5′35″ adrift, despite having to open the way late on. Splitting the two KTM teammates was Adrien Van Beveren on his Honda, second at 4′57″, his best result since the start. Then come a battalion of CRFs: Skyler Howes fourth at 6′46″, Tosha Schareina fifth at 8′45″ and Ricky Brabec sixth at 9′15″, with the rest of the motorbike field still coming in.

Luciano Benavides led the stage from A to Z, while Daniel Sanders came home third, 5′35″ adrift, despite having to open the way late on. Splitting the two KTM teammates was Adrien Van Beveren on his Honda, second at 4′57″, his best result since the start. Then come a battalion of CRFs: Skyler Howes fourth at 6′46″, Tosha Schareina fifth at 8′45″ and Ricky Brabec sixth at 9′15″, with the rest of the motorbike field still coming in.

Just as his brother Luciano takes the motorbike win, Kevin Benavides has wrested the lead of the Challenger class from Dania Akeel. The Argentinian holds a 7-second advantage over the Saudi driver and 1′46″ over the Chilean Ignacio Casale at km 178.

Charging through the field since the start (46th at km 30) Edgar Canet has pulled off a stunning comeback. He snatched second place in the stage in the mad dash to the line to hand KTM a 1-2 in Wadi ad-Dawasir. The Catalan finished 4′47″ behind Luciano Benavides, while keeping Adrien Van Beveren at bay, with the Frenchman third just 10 seconds further back. Canet returned to the sharp end after two stages outside the top 10. In one of them (stage 5), he had been compromised by a rear tyre failure.

The overall leader, Daniel Sanders, has seen his advantage over Ricky Brabec balloon from 45 seconds to 4'25", but further back, third-placed Luciano Benavides has rocketed from 10'15" to 4'40". Under 5 minutes separate the top 3. Tosha Schareina, fourth, dropped from 11'56" to 15'06". Skyler Howes (+33'14") has vaulted past Ignacio Cornejo (+33'25") into fifth place.

Stage results here: Dakar - Live race coverage