WATCH extended one-hour highlights from every stage of the 2022 Dakar Rally - January 2-15 (AEDT) - EXCLUSIVE and FREE on SBS and .
Sanders had to overcome a painful head injury after he smashed into the navigation screen on his KTM 450 during the Saudi Arabian race's longest stage - and one of its most taxing - on Wednesday.
The bike's airbag was fortunately deployed after Sanders suffered a jolting landing following a jump amid the dunes late in the 465km trek from Al Qaisumah to the capital Riyadh.
The Victorian’s face was left bruised but he felt he was lucky to get away without a serious
spill and recovered to make it to the finish of the 465km fourth stage in 17th behind the winner, Joan Barreda, who earned his second victory of the race.
It moved Sanders up one place to fourth overall, still only seven minutes and seven seconds behind race leader Sam Sunderland, his British teammate for the Spanish GasGas team.
That represents only a small gap in a gruelling two-week affair being run solely amid the sand, rocks and dunes of Saudi in the celebrated race's 44th edition.
"I landed off a dune jump on a mound. That's why my face is like this - I face- planted the navigation screen on the front," Sanders said.
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"It was a really rough day. I hit my head pretty hard, but I was really lucky I didn't crash.
"The airbag went off and it was good to just regroup and get to the next refuel, finish strong and try not to lose too much time today because it was the biggest stage of the race. It was good fun."
Australia's two-times winner Toby Price, on his Red Bull KTM factory bike, came home 29th on the stage and now lies 16th - 43min 36sec behind Sunderland.
In the cars section, Qatar's Nasser Al Attiyah won to go 38 minutes clear as the event underwent tighter security after a French team vehicle had been hit by an explosion in Jeddah last week.
The factory Toyota driver finished second in the special stage but was promoted after Saudi driver Yazeed al-Rajhi collected a two-minute penalty for speeding.
It was the 44th stage win of triple Dakar winner Al Attiyah's career, and second this year in addition to the prologue.
Nine-times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb, the Qatari's closest rival with the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, was second, 25 seconds behind, with Audi's Carlos Sainz third.
