Joan Barreda takes second place at Qatar Rally opener

I think that I had a good day. I passed half the group but from kilometre 50 onwards I was opening the way with Viladoms. The navigation was difficult and to make things worse I had a problem with the GPS. I had to wait for Paulo who was going really well and I was able to make it through to the end without any trouble. It was a shame as we lost some valuable minutes in the final part. Let’s see how the rest of the race turns out.

I finished fifth today with a couple of navigational setbacks. From that point of view, it is the most difficult race of the world championship, so I suppose that it is normal that some errors are made. The position jeopardizes the rest of the rally a bit as it means that the riders who finished ahead are able to choose tomorrow’s starting positions. I’ll just have to keep battling even if I don’t like it. But the most important thing is that the bike hasn’t given any problems. I’ve just got to keep battling on.

It was a complicated stage with a lot of navigation. I was forced to open and for me the most important thing is to keep gaining experience and get back into the swing of things. I tried to maintain a positive and steady navigation, riding by myself, but I made a couple of mistakes. I continued to try and learn and correct my own mistakes instead of just clinging on to the other riders, which would have been the easiest thing to do.

Today was the first day of the Sealine Rally in Qatar and was not a bad day. We didn’t have the best starting positions but the guys made the most of it. For Jeremias he had the pleasure of starting first and opening the track, learning more about navigation and being able to concentrate on his road-book, while other riders at the rear were able to have an easier job. So, for Joan it was important to push and make it into the top positions for today. It was a pity that he just missed the stage victory by just a few seconds, having a few problems with his GPS at the end of the stage. Paulo helped him out a bit in the end. Overall, it could have been a bit better, but nothing has been lost so far, so tomorrow we’ll be concentrating on the tricky navigation again. So let’s look forward to the next four days. The bikes have been running great with no technical problems and there’s been very stony and hot conditions which are a good testing place for the bikes and riders.