Paulo Goncalves and Joan Barreda take valuable points for the world championship in the Sardegna Rally Race

"The Sardegna Rally is now over and I am happy with my performance, my navigation, with the CRF450R and the team. Everything worked great but unfortunately the marathon stage did not go well for us. I had two problems with the front brakes that I was unable to fix because we could not benefit from the team assistance at that time. I lost a lot of time during those days being unable to push. In the end I have finished in fourth place overall, it is a bad result. Other than that everything else worked perfectly, which shows that we can rely on the job we have done and the good feeling with the bike."

"It's a pity I wasn’t able to achieve a better result today, I wanted to push and improve my race position. Yesterday my feeling was really good and I wanted to take advantage of it today - even if I was not completely comfortable riding in a particular race such as this one - I believe I could have had a good finish today. At the beginning of the Special I bumped into Faria, lost my concentration and after refueling I wanted to push but with the dust lifted up by Botturi´s bike I had a bit of a scare with a rock, forcing me to slow down."

"The last day in Sardegna has been very good for me. I was feeling really positive; I had a good start and was in a prime position to fight for the podium. I went for it and pushed but halfway through the Special I had a problem with the rear sprocket. I think it might have been a small stone that probably got caught between the chain and the sprocket and I wasn’t able to finish the race. It is unfortunate for me because up to that point we had done a great job these past few days. We did a lot of work in order to be ready for the race and everything was going so well. We will continue fighting in the upcoming races to get better results in the future."

"During the last day of the Sardegna Rally, all three riders continued fighting podium finishes. Paulo won the last Special of the day and finished fourth. Joan had a scare with another rider during the Special and luckily nothing came of it. Hélder had a technical problem with his rear wheel that prevented him from finishing the race. Generally speaking we are happy with the job the riders and the team have done. They have not been able to make it to the podium or win the rally but they have taken valuable points for the Championship. Barreda and Gonçalves are still serious contender for the title, currently in second and third place respectively. Next stop will be Brazil."

"The overall result here in Sardinia does not reflect the real work and performance of our HRC riders. We finished fourth with Gonçalves and seventh with Barreda, but we have seen the level of the riders was very high. We won two stages, one with Paulo and another Joan, who also won the prologue. They have fought for victory and were first and third after the second stage. But we've had a bit of bad luck. The third stage was difficult with many problems that ruined any chances of a podium for Paulo and Joan and the last day Hélder was really unlucky to break the rear sprocket. All we can say is that we have seen the level of our riders, very fast, in good rhythm and are in second and third place in the World Standings, with the same number of points and only seven points behind the new leader Coma. We knew that Sardinia was a great challenge and we have shown that we have a good team and a very good bikes."