He said: “At the start of the special stage, everything was going perfectly. We were right behind the leading cars, and found ourselves up with Stephane Peterhansel, Hiroshi Masuoka and Jean-Louis Schlesser in the sand dunes.

“One thing really surprised me and that was Stephane’s speed in the dunes. It was really incredible.”

McRae, driving a Nissan, is 41 minutes 29 seconds adrift of overall leader Masuoka, the Mitsubishi driver whose second consecutive stage win kept him on top of the standings.

However, McRae was happy just to make it to the end of the Dakar Rally’s longest stage, having been forced to dig himself out of a sand dune.

He added: “Unfortunately, at the end of this sector of very soft sand, we got stuck. We lost around 20 minutes before getting out of this trap. I am learning every day, especially over this sort of terrain, which is totally new for me.”

Peterhansel, driving a Mitsubishi, is second overall, less than 12 minutes adrift of Masuoka.

The standings in the motorcycle class were dramatically shuffled yesterday when overnight leader Isidre Esteve Pujol slipped out of contention following first a heavy accident and then a mechanical problem.

That gifted the lead to Cyril Despres, whose third place on stage seven was enough to lift him to the top of the pile, with Joan Roma second overall.

Yesterday’s winner Richard Sainct has moved into third place in the standings after pipping Jean Brucy to the stage victory.

Derbyshire’s Mike Extance is 54th on his Honda after finishing stage seventh in 39th place.