Singleton's Toby Price was first at the scene of the crash and stayed with Gonalves for more than an hour helping the medical team at the site.

Goncalves, 40, was airlifted to hospital and subsequently pronounced dead.

Monday's stage eight of the rally has been cancelled in a mark of mourning by Dakar participants.

Several riders including Kevin Benavides, Price and Stefan Svitko stopped to assist Gonclaves.

They were all subsequently awarded time by rally organisers with Benavides winning the stage on the adjusted time.

"Worst day for the rally sport," Price stated on social media.

"Rest and ride in peace Pablo Goncalves you will be missed by many.

"Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

"This one hurts and is tough to swallow."

Price was was awarded a time of just 7 minutes 57 seconds behind Benavides to be seventh on the day and fourth overall.

On provisional times he had dropped to 11th overall, having begun the day third after losing more than 16 minutes when the rear wheel fell off his bike on stage six.

Californian Ricky Brabec remains the leader after seven stages.

Rodney Faggotter is the next best ranked Australian, ranked 13th (2:19'05'' behind the leader) ahead of Ben Young (63rd), Trevor Collin Wilson (84th) and Matthew Tisdall (102nd).

STAGE ONE - Finished first with a time of 03:21'33" over 752km

STAGE TWO - Finished 17th with a time of 03:51'23" over 393km

STAGE THREE - Finished fifth with a time of 03:38'06" (variation of 08'35") over 504km

STAGE FOUR - Finished sixth with a time of 04:27'50" over 672km

STAGE FIVE - Finished first with a time of 03:57'33" over 564km

STAGE SIX - Finished 11^th with a time of 04:53'01" over 830km

STAGE SEVEN - Finished seventh with a time of 04:44'19" (variation of 07'57") over 741km