Sealine Cross-Country Rally: 1759 quilómetros de pura navegação

Next Monday, Team HRC begin what looks set to be one of the greatest challenges of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship: the Qatar Sealine. The buoyant HRC riders will have to tackle one of the most arduous tests in the rally calendar thanks to the colossal amount of navigation involved.

 The preparations are over. Now, with the scrutineering out of the way and the technical checks easily passed, it’s showtime for Qatar’s Sealine Cross-Country Rally as the curtain goes up on the second round of the world championship. Paulo Gonçalves, Joan Barreda and Jeremías Israel will spearhead the Honda adventure.

 In the latest edition of the Sealine, Team HRC will be looking to accrue more kilometres of experience as the quest for a second triumph – to add to that of Joan Barreda’s last year’s – continues. This year, after the setbacks of the world championship opener in Abu Dhabi, the team’s double-headed objective remains both the world championship title, as well as the continued development of the Honda CRF450 RALLY.

 Tomorrow, riders can look forward to a total of 255 kilometres, of which 194 will be against the clock. The race’s particular characteristics and its heavy demands on navigational skills throughout the 1759 kilometres of the Sealine, will make Paulo Gonçalves and Joan Barreda two firm-favourites for top-spots on the final leaderboard.

Wolfgang Fischer: Two weeks after Abu Dhabi, we are heading to Qatar for the second round and everything is all set to bring home what we didn’t manage to achieve in Abu Dhabi. Also, in Qatar we have last year’s victory to defend with Joan Barreda and Paulo Goncalves as motivated as ever. Jeremias Israel from Chile, who has just confirmed his new contract with Team HRC will be supporting our two guys in Qatar. We will try everything to secure the defence of last year’s victory and hope for a better race.