A calamitous navigational error by Sanders opened the road for his field of rivals as Spaniard Joan Barreda (Honda) capitalised on his opportunity to ride home for his 28th Dakar stage win and a spot in the top 10 on general classification.
Neck and neck with Rui Goncalves (Sherco) until the fourth waypoint, Barreda surged into the lead in the latter stages of the stage to cross the line five minutes and 33 seconds ahead of second-placed Sunderland, as Aussie two-time Dakar winner Toby Price (Red Bull KTM) came in third.
Sanders explained how he ended up missing a way point in the second half of the stage which caused him to lose such a large chunk of time to the other competitors.
"It was really good this morning," 'Chucky' said following the stage.
"I did really well with the navigation until the fuel stop after 200 km. Then it was really crazy. Just after the fuel stop, we had a few tricky notes.
"We missed a way point because we went one valley too far to the left. We spent a fair bit of time there trying to find it.
"I lost about twenty minutes, so it was pretty crazy. But I recovered and then pushed a lot to try and not lose too much time in the last dune section. Hopefully I recovered a little bit of time."
Previously second-placed Pablo Quiantilla (Honda) also struggled on the day, which meant 2017 winner Sunderland's effort was good enough to move into the overall lead as Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) sits 2 minutes and 51 seconds behind in second spot with Sanders still managing to hold on to third a further 37 seconds back despite losing 30 minutes on the stage.
Price's third-place finish helped him climb back towards overall contention, now 15th at 32 minutes and 48 seconds off Sunderland's top spot heading into tomorrow's stage 3.
In the cars category, Sébastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Extreme) gained further ground on Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo), expertly tailing the Qatari driver to take his 15th Dakar stage win and move within nine minutes and 16 seconds of top spot on the general classification.
After an outstanding performance from Al-Attiyah in Stage 1B that seemed to establish him as clear favourite, Loeb's effort has created an intriguing battle between the two that may be set to last for the rest of the race. Both are well clear of the next best challenger, with third-placed Lucio Alvarez (Overdrive Toyota) a further 31 minutes and 37 seconds behind Loeb.
Russian team Kamaz are dominating the trucks category through the first two stages, with three of the team's drivers at the top of the general classification led by Stage 1 winner Dmitry Sotnikov.
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