Riding for the Red Bull factory KTM Rally Team the 31-year-old from the Gold Coast defied almost impossible odds to complete the event with a fractured wrist.

Suffering the injury during training shortly before the Dakar, many doubted the 2016 winner would complete the event.

The ten-day race, with a rest day in the middle, was run entirely in Peru and covered a total of 5537kms of which there were ten competitive stages covering 2951kms.

Price started the event slowly and gradually worked his way up the leader board despite severe pain and finally took the lead on stage eight by one minute and three seconds.

On the penultimate stage over 313kms, Price and second-placed Pablo Quintanilla had an intense battle with Price only conceding one second to the Husqvarna rider.

The stage was set for a huge battle over the final 112kms stage with the Chilean rider going for broke, crashing at the 20-kilometre mark and injuring an ankle.

As it was Price stormed through to take out his first stage win of the event and claim what many thought would be an impossible dream.

It’s difficult to come up with the right superlative to describe Price’s incredible win but you could take your pick from gutsy, heroic, brilliant, determined, committed, courageous and anything else you can think of and they would all apply.

Price covered almost 3000 competitive kilometres in just under 34 hours which means an average speed of 88km/h over some of the roughest terrain you can imagine and all with a broken wrist. What a legend.

On January 6, 347 entries made up of 149 motorcycles,100 cars, 42 trucks, 26 quads and 30 side-by-sides set off on the world’s most extreme motorsport event.

A total of 145 were forced to withdraw including 74 motorcycles which gives a clear indication of just how difficult it was to even finish.   

Since becoming a professional rider at age 16 in 2004 Price’s record of achievement has been extraordinary, and includes five Australian off-road championships and six wins in the Finke desert race in the Northern Territory,

He has won the Hattah desert race five times, the International Six Days Enduro, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and is the current FIM Cross Country Rallies champion.

In his five starts in the Dakar rally Price has not only won twice but also finished third in 2015 and 2018.

He is a great champion and all Australians should be proud.

Toyota had every right to be jubilant at the end of the Dakar rally with the modified Toyota Hilux of Nasser Al-Attiyah from Qatar and his French co-driver Baumel Mallhieu scoring the first win for the Japanese giant in eight years of trying.

In seven previous attempts a Hilux had finished on the podium five times but this time around, despite serious competition, the V8-powered car never missed a beat and their navigation was faultless.

The car was built and prepared in South Africa by Toyota Gazoo Racing the official motorsport arm of the Toyota Corporation.

TGR also build and run the World Rally Championship campaign with the Toyota Yaris which took out the team’s championship in 2018 and almost won the drivers’ championship with Ott Tanak.

Toyota’s other major success was winning the prestigious Le Mans 24-hour race last year after several heartbreaking near-misses.

The sister car came home second and with three rounds to go in the World Endurance Championship, the two cars have a healthy lead despite both cars being disqualified in an earlier round due to a technical infringement.

Al-Attiyah had previously won the Dakar in 2011 in a special, highly-modified four-wheel drive Volkswagen Toureg and then again in 2015 in a modified Mini rally raid car.