 
Sealine Cross Country Rally
2015 Cross Countries Rally Round 2 , Stage 3
Goncalves triumphs in the third special of the Qatar
Rally
Team HRC come away from the third stage of the Sealine Cross-Country
Rally with a positive report-card as Paulo Goncalves moves back up among the
front-runners, winning the stage and clawing back positions in the general
standings.
Joan Barreda came very close to pulling off a spectacular result today
after having the misfortune to be first in the day’s starting order. The
Spanish ace managed to lead for over three-quarters of the race, but a minor
navigational distraction in one of the trickier stretches of the route put
paid to his victory aspirations and meant that he had dropped time as well
as his overall second position before the day was through.
Barreda’s comrade-in-arms Paulo Gonçalves took up the torch, coming
from behind to take the triumph which will now allow him to choose tomorrow’s
starting position amid the first six starters, as determined by new race
regulations.
It wasn’t all good news for Team HRC as Jeremías Israel was forced out
of the race. The Chilean rider had to turn back and head for base some 70 km
into the race as his arm – injured by the impact of a rock yesterday –
began to play up. Jeremías should be back in competition for the
Argentinean Desafío Ruta 40.
Tomorrow (Thursday) sees the penultimate stage of the rally. Once more,
riders will be faced with 400 km of timed special stage as the fight for
room on the rostrum heats up and the Sealine Cross-Country Rally of Qatar
nears its end.
 Paulo
Goncalves - STAGE: 1ST OVERALL: 4TH
A great day and a fine special today. I started out from eighth which was a
good position and I did pretty well as I managed to catch up with the riders
who had started out before. I pulled back quite a bit of time. I’m now ten
minutes off the top-position in the general with the chance now to choose
which of the first six positions I’d like for tomorrow’s start. I’m
pleased for me and for the team which is running really well. There’s
still a couple of days to go, so let’s see how it turns out.
 Joan
Barreda STAGE: 7TH OVERALL: 6TH
I’m very happy. I worked really hard all stage long. I arrived at the
refuelling first at kilometre 200 with a real fast pace. I was really paying
attention to the navigation that was really complicated. I found the right
path and was confident and thought that everything was going right. But
towards the end I took a route a bit out of the way, which I then thought I
could make up, but it didn’t turn out that way. In the end I had to double
back some fifteen kilometres. It was a shame, but I had to give it a try!
Still, it’s one of those days that you feel pleased with the job done.
Jeremias Israel - STAGE: DNF OVERAL: DNF
Today I’m a bit demoralized. Even though I had the arm problem and was in
a lot of pain, I had the chance to push and help the team out. I did what I
could but I couldn’t really do that much. I gave it a try, but it didn’t
turn out. Right now I’ll have to start thinking about getting back into
shape for the next race.
 Wolfgang
Fischer - Team HRC Team Manager
Paulo Goncalves was able to make the most out of his starting position
coming from the rear and taking a nice stage victory. It helped him to
recoup valuable minutes that he hadn’t been able to do over the previous
days. Joan tried to make the impossible possible starting from first
position and showing impressive navigation. He did everything at the start
of the race, opening the track with very tricky navigation and tried to
change the game-plan to his advantage, but of course, in these conditions
just one little mistake can mean that you lose minutes. He tried everything
but it didn’t work out. In the end we don’t have such a bad starting
position for tomorrow. Anyway, there are still two days to go. Let’s see
what we can fight for. It wasn’t such a good day for Jeremias. He was
trying to help the team and was pushing from the beginning despite his
injured arm from yesterday. But in the end it didn’t work out and he had
to give up. He was in too much pain and was not physically able to control
the bike. So it’s the end of the race for him.
Results Stage 3
1 GONCALVES Paulo POR Team HRC 4:29'46 2 QUINTANILLA Pablo CHI KTM Warsaw
Rally Team + 2'04 3 COMA Marc SPA KTM Red Bull Rally Factory + 3'59 4
WALKNER Mathias AUT KTM Red Bull Rally Factory + 6'11 5 VILADOMS Jordi SPA
KTM Red Bull Rally Factory + 8'02 6 SUNDERLAND Sam GBR KTM Red Bull Rally
Factory + 12'01 7 BARREDA Joan SPA Team HRC + 13'53 8 MONLEóN Armand SPA
KTM Warsaw Rally Team + 44'05 9 MEGRE David POR Team Megre Portugal + 54'59
10 PATRAO Mario POR Team Patrao Portugal + 56'10
Provisional Standings after Stage 3
1 COMA Marc SPA KTM Red Bull Rally Factory 10:54'02 2 VILADOMS Jordi SPA KTM
Red Bull Rally Factory + 10'12 3 QUINTANILLA Pablo CHI KTM Warsaw Rally Team
+ 10'13 4 GONCALVES Paulo POR Team HRC + 10'33 5 WALKNER Mathias AUT KTM Red
Bull Rally Factory + 11'08 6 BARREDA Joan SPA Team HRC + 11'57 7 SUNDERLAND
Sam GBR KTM Red Bull Rally Factory +12'58 8 ALBALOOSHI Mohammed UAE KTM UAC
+ 1:20'30 9 MONLEóN Armand SPA KTM Warsaw Rally Team + 1'46'36 10 ABU ISSA
Mohammed QAT Abu Issa + 2:02'05
Stage 2 report
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