Rodrigues wins 12th stage as Price holds Dakar motorcycle lead

Portugal's Helder Rodrigues, riding a Yamaha, won the Dakar Rally 12th stage for motorbikes ahead of Australian Toby Price of KTM who holds the overall motorbikes lead going into the final day's racing on Saturday.

Rodrigues clocked the fastest time in Friday's 481km special, 5hr 57min 24sec, in the 931km stage between San Juan and Villa Carlos Paz to finish 7min 32sec ahead of Price with Argentina's Kevin Benavides third at 7min 55sec on a Honda.

Price, 28, is poised to claim his first Dakar victory in Rosario on Saturday with the KTM rider holding a 37min 39sec lead on his Slovak teammate Stefan Svitko while the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla of Husqvarna lies third at 53min 10sec.

France's Antoine Meo had been sitting third before the longest stage of the endurace race but dropped to sixth overall after losing half an hour during a fall.