Joan Barreda becomes the first leader of the OiLibya Rally of Morocco, in this, the sixth and final rally of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship. The Spanish rider set a cracking pace over the 276 kilometres against the clock, in a stage that covered both hard track and rocky terrain, and even included a first incursion into the dunes. Such was the speed over most of the stage, that not even a minor loss of route in the later part was able to stop the Team HRC rider crossing the finish-line in first place.
Joan Barreda’s win was reinforced by team-mate Paulo Gonçalves who made it a Honda double. ‘Speedy’ kept his distance from Marc Coma who started out from behind the Portugese rider, but was never able to get past him. Coming in behind Coma, in fourth position, was yet another Team HRC component, Hélder Rodrigues, who performed well over the special.
Team HRC debutants, Jeremías Israel and Laia Sanz managed to finish among the top thirteen finishers on their first outing on the brand new Honda CRF450 RALLY. Jeremías finished with a tenth place, and Sanz a note-worthy thirteenth.
Joan Barreda: It went really well. I’m pleased with the way that the stage went. We started from behind and there was a lot of tricky navigating to do. Near the end I dropped a couple of minutes due to a slight navigational error, but it didn’t amount to much. Now we will be looking to see how we can improve even more over the next few days, and keep ahead of the rest. The strategy will have a crucial role in the race.
