Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Racing riders have made the best of a difficult Prologue stage at the 2017 Atacama Rally in Chile, where stage times were eventually cancelled due to navigation problems. Riders’ times will be used to determine their start positions for stage one on Monday.

FIM Cross-Country Rallies Championship leader, Sam Sunderland, rode well on the fast prologue stage. Unfortunately, navigating proved difficult and the 2017 Dakar winner made a number of small but costly errors.

Sunderland: “It’s always tricky here in Chile. The road-books are never perfect and you often find a lot of locals in the desert. Trying to follow tracks in the sand is difficult when there are locals driving around – it’s easy to get put off course. I missed one waypoint and had to turn back, which unfortunately cost me a couple of minutes. Eventually, with the times being scrapped, it meant those riders who returned soonest, despite missing check-points, would be placed higher.

“It’s a long rally, so I just need to refocus for tomorrow and do the best I can.”

Sunderland’s team-mate, Matthias Walkner, also found navigation difficult, especially due to the previous night’s rain and vehicle tracks in the desert.

Walkner: “It was always going to be tough riding the prologue today. It’s such a short loop and in theory, the fastest riders should win. Today was more like flipping a coin. The route was incredibly difficult due to other vehicles using the desert for practice or just driving around. The weather meant the course was almost impossible to follow, too. I think the organisers made the correct decision in scrapping the times from today. Tomorrow we will start a fresh and I hope to do well.”

KTM Rally Factory Racing’s Laia Sanz, enjoying her time back on the KTM 450 RALLY, rode a solid prologue in difficult conditions. 

Sanz: “It was such a strange day today. I felt good on the bike and for me, this is all about preparation for the Dakar at the beginning of next year. I am happy with how I rode so I just want to focus on tomorrow now.”

On Monday, the riders will head into Stage One, the first of the five full stages of the Atacama rally. The stage leaves Copiapó and heads north before circling through the desert and later heading back to the starting city.