Joan Barreda and Paulo Gonçalves take the top-spots in the penultimate stage of the Sealine Cross-Country Rally as the Honda CRF450 RALLY seals a second consecutive win in Qatar.
Team HRC haven’t thrown in the towel yet, today scoring a remarkable one-two as the rally heads towards the final-day showdown. Joan Barreda sneaked the victory ahead of team-mate Paulo Gonçalves, which seats the two in podium places.
The Honda CRF450 RALLY riders started today’s escapade from advantageous rear positions. There ensued a high-speed hunt as the Honda buddies imposed themselves on the rest of the rivals, who saw their surplus time whittled down by the end of the day. Joan caught up with Paulo and the two chased down the leaders and track-openers. By refuelling they had reached the main group who they then tracked until the end of the special stage, crossing the line virtually together.
The triumph moves Joan Barreda up to second overall place and to within eight minutes of the leader Marc Coma. Portuguese rider Gonçalves lies third, one and a half minutes off his Spanish side-kick and 8:29 behind the Sealine front-runner.
The 2015 Sealine Cross-Country Qatar Rally winds up with 365 kilometres of special stage tomorrow.
Joan Barreda: Today was a great day. I started out from further back and I pushed hard the first 150 km with Paulo. We were able to catch the other riders up before we got to the refuelling and we rode with them until the end. It was a really good stage. Tomorrow is the final day and I’d like to be able to make up some time, but it will be difficult.
