The Movistar rider had seen his jersey move to the shoulders of David De La Cruz, after the Spaniard’s victory yesterday in the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Tour race.

Ahead of the first rest day of the race, the battle of the general classification contenders was always likely to see the leadership change again, due to the mountainous nature of the 188km stage from Lugones to Lagos de Covadonga.

With the steep Lagos de Covadonga climb bringing the stage to a close, the key contenders remained in the peloton for the early part of the day, with a 16-man breakaway group being allowed to form.

It was not until the final 10km of the stage that damage was done to one of the race favourites’ chances, with Tour de France winner Chris Froome dropping off the main group, with Movistar increasing the pace to move away from the Briton.

Alberto Contador looked to relaunch his Vuelta hopes by attacking inside the final six kilometres and although he left De La Cruz and fellow Spaniard Alejandro Valverde behind, he was followed by Quintana.

The duo set off in pursuit of the remnants of the breakaway, with The Netherlands’ Robert Gesink appearing to be closing in on a stage victory.

A further acceleration from Quintana saw him detach Contador, with the Colombian then catching and passing Gesink en-route to winning the stage in a time of 4hr, 50min and 31sec.

Gesink was able to hold on to finish second on the stage, ending 24 seconds down on Quintana, but he was nearly passed by Froome.

The British rider had appeared revived in the closing kilometres of the race and battled back to limit his losses to Quintana, finishing just a second after Gesink.

Italy’s Michele Scarponi and the Spanish duo of Valverde and the new King of the Mountains leader, Omar Fraile, crossed the line 28 seconds behind the stage winner.

While Froome had come through the field late on, Contador had headed in the opposite direction and finished 1:02 down in eighth.

Quintana will go into the rest day with a 57 second lead over his Movistar team-mate Valverde, with Froome a further second down.

The British rider is expected to make up time in the individual time trial later in the stage race, so Quintana will aim to make further time gains when racing resumes on Wednesday (August 31).