Gonçalves and Barreda take up positions in the first dune-filled stage

"I was third today so it was a really good race for me and for Team HRC. The speed of the race was really high, so I tried to play it safe and guarantee a good all round position. We have four more races in front and we need to stay competitive and safe, because the race is very dangerous with a lot of dunes that you can’t always see coming. We need to take each day as it comes, and try to get a good overall position."

"It was a difficult stage because of the tough conditions and the high temperatures. I made it. It was a good test for the bike and a good test for Honda and we’ll continue working on this to try and do a good job."

"It was a really, really hard race today. It was really fast and pretty dangerous. It was quite a good result for Paulo finishing third and Barreda finishing fourth; for about half the race he was quite close to second place, but then he made a slight mistake and finished fourth today. I’m sorry for Helder who had some electrical problems 50 kilometres into the race. But that’s racing. We accept what’s happened and we’ll do our best to get him started tomorrow.
Today we got to hear of the passing of Cameron Waugh. The whole Team HRC would like to offer their respect and most sincere condolences to him, his family and friends."

"Today was the first really tough race in the desert. As always in the heat of the Liwa desert you can see who is well trained and physically in tip-top condition. Joan and Paulo were able to keep up the speed at just a few minutes from Marc and Sam. Unluckily we had some problems with Helder today. We need to find out what was the reason, but tomorrow is a good position to attack from, to hold on to the positions and make up some ground."