Marc Coma Win is hard Fought
Rally dos Sertoes in Brazil
Red Bull KTM’s Marc Coma on Saturday won the Rally dos Sertoes in Brazil by a margin of 3:23 minutes after seven hard fought stages.
The win consolidates Coma’s lead in the FIM World Cross Country Rallies Championship in the fifth of six rounds.
Coma, a Red Bull athlete won the rally from HRC Factory Honda rider Paolo Goncalves of Portugal while Brazilian rider Joan Azevedo took the minor podium place. Red KTM’s Spanish rider took three stage wins and led the overall standings from the end of Stage One to the finish.
The rally was particularly tight but on Thursday Coma had finally edged ahead of Goncalves by a margin of seven minutes. He then had to open the track on the penultimate stage on Friday and his margin of lead dropped to four minutes.
Friday, Coma said, was the key to the rally, a stage that required particular attention, as it was the second half of the marathon stage. At the end of Stage Six he said it had been important to control the race and deploy conservative tactics, because navigation was difficult.
Coma finished second in the final stage but maintained the advantage in the overall standings, proving that conquering the event was not just about riding fast but also about riding smart.
“Today was a long hard day, especially with the pressure of being in the lead." Coma admitted. "This is a very hard rally to win and the level of the riders is very high.
"Paolo (Goncalves) was pushing all the time so I’m very happy with the final results. I came into the rally with a lead of ten points in the World Championship and it will be good to go to the final round in Morocco with a bigger cushion.
"Morocco is a very hard rally and we know that anything can happen there. It will be good to be going with confidence after this win.”
Coma has only won the Rally dos Sertoes on one other occasion, in 2010.
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Results Stage 7:
1. Paulo Goncalves 01:34'57 PRT HONDA TEAM HRC
2. Marc Coma +1'14 ESP KTM KTM Red Bull Rally Factory
3. Jean Azevedo +1'50 BRA HONDA Honda Mobil Rally
4. Ruben Faria +3'32 POR KTM KTM Red Bull Rally Factory
5. Helder Rodrigues +3'43 PRT HONDA TEAM HRC
6. Jordi Viladoms +4'44 ESP KTM KTM Red Bull Rally Factory
7. David Casteu +4'59 FRA KTM Team Casteu
8. Sam Sunderland +5'02 GBR KTM KTM Red Bull Rally Factory
9. Ike Klaumann +6'13 BRA HONDA Team Klaumann
10. Ramon Oliveira Sacilotti +7'35 BRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Rinaldi
Final Results:
1. Marc Coma 18:21'51
2. Paulo Goncalves +3'23
3. Jean Azevedo +14'05
4. Helder Rodrigues +21'46
5. Jordi Viladoms +26'37
6. Sam Sunderland +33'37
7. Ike Klaumann +43'41
8. Ruben Faria +46'36
9. David Casteu +47'35
10. Ramon Oliveira Sacilotti +1:05'57
Top Image: Marc Coma on his way to winning the 2014 Rally Dos Sertoes
Credit: KTM