Honda’s Joan Barreda won today’s fifth stage of the OiLibiya Rally of Morocco, but Red Bull KTM’s Marc Coma continues to hold the overall lead heading into tomorrow’s sixth and final stage. Coma also has a grip on the World Championship after his closest rival, Paolo Goncalves, suffers injury.
Barreda’s win today – in what was the longest stage of the rally – was the fourth win in six stages for Honda and its CRF450 Rally.
The stage started in Zagora before winding its way into the mountainous Draa area, and finishing up some 315 miles later in Ourzazate – with the route including some 185 miles of timed special. Today’s route was in stark contrast to yesterday’s stage with the dunes being replaced by rock-filled narrow and treacherous track.
Barreda was, for the fourth time, the fastest of the race, setting a storming pace that allowed him to close down on the front-runners. In doing so, the Spaniard moves into fourth in the overall standings with just tomorrow’s stage in Marrakech still left to run.
“It was a really dangerous day today,” Barreda said. “I set off really pushing hard, but I saw straight away that there was so much to lose, with loads of dangers, and knew that I had to stay calm, especially in the river crossings with so many rocks. I changed the chip and focused on getting through without making any mistakes or crashing. In the end I caught up with the other riders up ahead, making it a good all round result.”
Second place today went to Sherco’s Joan Pedrero, the Spaniard finishing two minutes and 42 seconds behind his countryman.
Honda’s Hélder Rodrigues was third and looks likely to hold on to a podium finish after tomorrow’s 70 miles of timed special.
Paulo Gonçalves was unable to finish the special after suffering a crash early in the day before arriving at the first waypoint. The Portuguese rider was in a battle for the FIM World Cross-Country Rally Championship with Coma, but that came to an end today with the crash and subsequent injuries. He was transported to hospital in Ourzazate.
“It could have been a great day for me, but it didn’t turn out that way, because I was worried about Paulo [Goncalves], who I was very sad to see abandon the race,” said Rodrigues. “I found him and asked if he needed any help, but he told me to keep going. I tried as hard as I could right until the end, and I made it to the goal. We will be trying our hardest to get a result tomorrow. It’s great to hear that Paulo hasn’t got anything too serious.”
With just tomorrow’s stage left to run, Coma leads his teammate Sam Sunderland by almost 10 minutes in the overall standings. Rodrigues is third overall at a deficit of 12 minutes and five seconds and Barreda is fourth, 15 minutes and 31 seconds behind and just 45 seconds ahead of KTM’s Ruben Faria.
