The 2016 Dakar Champion placed second in prologue behind Team HRC’s Kevin Benavides but decided to start from the back of the pack to avoid dust.
Price finished the rocky 230 kilometre stage in second position 1m13s behind day winner Husqvarna Factory Rally Team Rider Pablo Quintanilla.
“Not a bad start to the Atacama Rally sitting in 2nd, 1m 13sec off the lead,” said Price.
“Starting last may not have been the best idea but we kinda made it work! Thought the wind would have picked up and blew a lot of the dust off the track but it just didn’t happen as you can see. Was a risk I wanted to try cause I have nothing to loose with the championship! Always learning and onto the next day.”
Team HRC riders Paulo Goncalves, Kevin Benavides and Ricky Brabec round out the top five.
“It has been a good stage and we had a long day for stage one with 230 km of special. I had a few problems with all the dust raised by the riders up ahead,” said Goncalves.
“In addition, the GPS turned off at kilometre 30 and I had some trouble finding a few waypoints. I overtook some of the riders, but Quintanilla got past me and I was in his rooster tail until the end of the special. Tomorrow will be a long day, but we have to keep putting in the kilometres and try to keep improving.”
Tomorrow’s stage is the longest of the five day event.
