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.

Private: 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.

2015 Cross Countries Rally
Stage Round 2 , 4   Qatar

Results Stage 4

Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Barreda Joan SPA Monster Energy Honda HRC Honda 4:32'38
2 Goncalves Paulo POR Team HRC Honda + 1'56
3 Coma Marc SPA Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team KTM + 4'00
4 Quintanilla Pablo CHI KTM Warsaw Rally Team KTM + 6'02
5 Sunderland Sam 3 GBR Gas Gas Factory Team Gas Gas + 8'05
6 Viladoms Jordi 11 SPA Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team KTM + 10'03
8 Piatek Jakub POL Orlen Team KTM + 44'56
9 Sonik Rafal POL Poland National Honda + 56'48
10 Megre David POR Team Megre Portugal KTM + 1:08'08
2015 Cross Countries Rally
Stage Round 2 , 4   Qatar

Provisional Standings after Stage 4

Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Coma Marc SPA Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team KTM 15:30:40
2 Barreda Joan SPA Monster Energy Honda HRC Honda + 7'57
3 Goncalves Paulo POR Team HRC Honda + 8'29
4 Quintanilla Pablo CHI KTM Warsaw Rally Team KTM + 12'15
5 Viladoms Jordi 11 SPA Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team KTM + 16'15
6 Sunderland Sam 3 GBR Gas Gas Factory Team Gas Gas + 17'13
7 Walkner Matthias AUT Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team KTM + 1:15'42
9 Al Balooshi Mohammed 31 UAE MX Raid Dubai KTM + 2:38'59
10 Sonik Rafal POL Poland National Honda + 2:52'52
Location Information

We have great pleasure in welcoming you to the desert landscapes of Qatar and we hope that our varied desert terrain of soft sand, of dunes, of hard and rocky terrain all provide suitable challenges for our FIA and FIM World Championship contenders and competitors over the five hard days… read more.

Losail International Race Circuit, Municipalidad de Al Daayen, Catar - View in Google Maps

Records

2017 Sam Sunderland (KTM)
2016 Sam Sunderland (KTM)
2015 Marc Coma (KTM)
2014 Joan Barreda (Honda)
2013 Marc Coma (KTM)
2012 Marc Coma (KTM)