Daniel Sanders has ridden through treacherous conditions to win stage three of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia and take the overall lead. 

The Red Bull GasGas rider is more than four minutes clear of the overnight leader, young American Mason Klein, with fellow Australian Toby Price in sixth.

The Australians rode together towards the end of Tuesday's stage and Sanders said: "Me and [Toby] Price pushed all the way to the end. We broke away from the guys in the dunes. I was surprised that the big kangaroo could still follow me!

"It was good, because we were two Aussies pushing through at the end and to pull away from some fast guys is pretty good.

"Of course, the Aussies have the strongest spirit. We've got some good natural desert skills.

Not all riders were able to complete the stage as racing was cut short due to rainstorms preventing medical helicopters from flying.

Organisers said "calculations will be made for each of the riders in accordance with the average accomplished on the first part of the stage in order to attribute a finishing time to them."

At the first refuelling point, after 240km, Sanders led 2020 winner Ricky Brabec by five seconds, but 34km later the American suffered a fall that put him out of the race. He was taken to hospital with back and neck pain.

With defending champion Sam Sunderland airlifted out of the race on the first stage, two of the last three winners are now out. The 2021 champion, Argentina's Kevin Benavides, is third.

Sanders said the start of the stage "was really hard through the deep sand and rock" while rain, rare in Saudi Arabia, caused the problems later on.

All the categories were curtailed in some way by the weather, with the cars halted at the 240km point.

Toyota's defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah took the lead after Audi's Carlos Sainz hit trouble.