 
Sealine Cross Country Rally
2015 Cross Countries Rally Round 2 , Stage 4
Double for Team HRC in the Sealine fourth stage as
Barreda and Goncalves head for podium places
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 - STAGE: 1ST OVERALL: 2ND
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.
 Paulo
Goncalves - STAGE: 2ND OVERALL: 3RD
We had another good day today. We started out from nice positions. I was
setting a fine pace, good enough to catch the leading group. I managed to
make up more time. Tomorrow will be important to keep the podium places. The
bike is working at 100% and everything that we’ve tried is going really
well. It’s crucial to stay as focused as possible to not make any mistakes
on the final day.
Wolfgang Fischer - Team HRC Team Manager
 Stage
four at Qatar was rewarded with a double victory for Team HRC. I think it’s
time to say something about the new rules concerning the starting order that
we have for this season, which are a bit complicated to understand and to
work with – especially for someone who is outside the rally following the
race. The rule itself states that the starting order for tomorrow’s stage
is decided by the result of today’s stage. The first three riders have the
priority to choose the starting position the next day, out of the top six
places. So, usually, with a lot of sand and navigation the rider will choose
that last place in the top six and consequently the second will choose fifth
and the third will choose fourth; riders four, five and six will have to
choose starting places three, two and one. What makes it so difficult is
that sometimes riders don’t want to be in the top six or have to push to
be in the top three. What we saw today was the result of the three days
before, to have the possibility to win back the time that they couldn’t
make up before due to the starting positions. So now we have been able to
win back valuable time and move up in the overall standings to second and
third place. Now, today’s result gives us a good starting position for
tomorrow, but not enough of a starting gap from the leader Marc Coma to
close the gap and beat him. So enough theory. Tomorrow, full gas, and let’s
see how it ends.
Results Stage 4
1 BARREDA Joan SPA Team HRC 4:32'38 2 GONCALVES Paulo POR Team HRC + 1'56 3
COMA Marc SPA KTM Red Bull Rally Factory + 4'00 4 QUINTANILLA Pablo CHI KTM
Warsaw Rally Team + 6'02 5 SUNDERLAND Sam GBR KTM Red Bull Rally Factory +
8'05 6 VILADOMS Jordi SPA KTM Red Bull Rally Factory + 10'03 7 MONLEóN
Armand SPA KTM Warsaw Rally Team + 28'19 8 PIATEK Jakub POL KTM Orlen Rally
Team + 44'56 9 SONIK Rafal POL Poland National + 56'48 10 MEGRE David POR
Team Megre Portugal + 1:08'08
Provisional Standings after Stage 4
1 COMA Marc SPA KTM Red Bull Rally Factory 15:30:40 2 BARREDA Joan SPA Team
HRC + 7'57 3 GONCALVES Paulo POR Team HRC + 8'29 4 QUINTANILLA Pablo CHI KTM
Warsaw Rally Team + 12'15 5 VILADOMS Jordi SPA KTM Red Bull Rally Factory +
16'15 6 SUNDERLAND Sam GBR KTM Red Bull Rally Factory + 17'13 7 WALKNER
Mathias AUT KTM Red Bull Rally Factory + 1:15'42 8 MONLEóN Armand SPA KTM
Warsaw Rally Team + 2:10'55 9 ALBALOOSHI Mohammed UAE KTM UAC + 2:38'59 10
SONIK Rafal POL Poland National + 2:52'52
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