KTM men back on top on day three

2015 Cross Countries Rally – Round Five – Atacama Rally – Stage Three

Chile’s Pablo Quintanilla once again stamped his dominance on the sands of home by taking victory in stage three of the 2015 Atacama Rally ahead of fellow KTM riders Mathias Walkner (AUT) and Jordi Villadoms (SPA).

Quintanilla’s stage win put him back to the top of the overall standings. The top seven in the rally are all KTM mounted.

Honda’s Paulo Goncalves continues to post strong results, the stage two winner, but an electrical problem on the opening stage means the Portuguese rider is only 11th outright.

Paulo Goncalves – 5th on stage – 11th overall – “Today was a really difficult stage. I opened the track with a really complicated stage in the dunes. At kilometre 30 I got over-confident and strayed away from a waypoint and to mark it I had to climb some really complicated dunes. When I found it and got back on to the right path I saw that some riders had already gone past, but there were tracks everywhere and I had difficulty following them. It was a really hard day for navigation. I think that I did pretty well even with a waypoint that didn’t seem to correspond, but I arrived having done it all. The bike worked well and we will keep pushing over the next couple of days.”

Suzuki also have a rider in the outright top ten with Chile’s Ignacio Cornejo ninth overall on an RMX450Z.

Toby Price started last one the road today after getting confused in speed limit zones and as a result being penalised 22 times for speeding infringements during stage two. That has taken a fair bit of shine from Toby’s debut as a full KTM Factory Rally rider but he clearly displayed his speed on the opening day of competition by finishing third outright on stage one.

Toby Price – “Starting last today was not so good, but it takes the pressure off and able to learn the navigation at a good pace and not flat out… I think I ended up in 5th today on time (we think Toby was in fact fourth) and can’t complain, two way-points were hard to find but all in all it was a good day no speeding, cause I now know there isn’t a beeper, and hit all way-points makes it a good day… After yesterday I ended up with 1hr45min penalties I think I got a new record they were saying, so at least I won something..”