KTM dominates the top five in the muddy opening stage of the Atacama Rally while Team HRC meets with disaster.
KTM Warsaw Rally’s Pablo Quintanilla set the pace and earned the Stage 1 win at the Atacama Rally in Chile today, finishing with a time of 40 minutes and 23 seconds in a drastically shortened stage.
Torrential rains during the past few weeks left the tracks and race route in deplorable condition, and Atacama Rally race officials had no choice but to to cut the Stage 1 distance to just a 15-Kilometer route that was circulated twice to determine the stage winner–hardly a real challenge for the riders, but what can you do?
Quintanilla handily won the shortened stage in which the top five finishers were KTM-mounted. Red Bull KTM’s Sam Sunderland of Great Britain posted a time of 41:23 through the two loops, finishing second, just 1 minute behind Quintanilla. Sunderland’s teammate and last year’s surprise third-place finisher at the Dakar Rally, Toby Price of Australia, finished third in Stage 1, another minute and 17 seconds behind Sunderland.
But, short as it was, the first stage of the Atacama Rally proved to be disastrous for former FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Champion Paulo Goncalves of Portugal. Hoping for a win to boost his chances of gaining points and possibly lifting the title away from the recently retired Marc Coma, who may be able to win it again without contesting the final two rounds, Goncalves ran into electrical gremlins that sidelined him for over 1 hour, and he finished the stage in 15th place, 1 hour and 11 seconds off the lead.
Tomorrow’s stage should be more like what the riders normally encounter, with a special stage of 367.30 kilometers from La Serena to Atacama.
2015 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship
2015 Atacama Rally
Atacama, Chile
Results: September 1, 2015 (Round 5 of 6)
Stage 1
1. Pablo Quintanilla (CHI)-KTM/40 minutes, 23 seconds
2. Sam Sunderland (GBR)-KTM/+00:01:00
3. Toby Price (AUS)-KTM/+00:02:17
4. Mathias Walkner (AUT)-KTM/+00:04:08
5. Antoine Meo (FRA)-KTM/+00:04:17
6. Jordi Villadoms (SPA)-KTM/+00:04:45
7. Jeremias Israel (CHI)-Hon/+00:07:13
8. Daniel Gouet (CHI)-KTM/+00:09:37
9. Mohammed Albalooshi (UAE)-KTM/+00:12:57
10. Jose Cornejo (POR)-Suz/+00:53:29
2015 Atacama Rally Overall Results (After 1 of 5 stages)
1. Pablo Quintanilla (CHI)-KTM/40 minutes, 23 seconds
2. Sam Sunderland (GBR)-KTM/+00:01:00
3. Toby Price (AUS)-KTM/+00:02:17
4. Mathias Walkner (AUT)-KTM/+00:04:08
5. Antoine Meo (FRA)-KTM/+00:04:17
6. Jordi Villadoms (SPA)-KTM/+00:04:45
7. Jeremias Israel (CHI)-Hon/+00:07:13
8. Daniel Gouet (CHI)-KTM/+00:09:37
9. Mohammed Albalooshi (UAE)-KTM/+00:12:57
10. Jose Cornejo (POR)-Suz/+00:53:29
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