Coma Prevails in Rally dos Sertões

The final stage of the Rally dos Sertões has been completed, and Red Bull KTM’s Marc Coma is the champion.

Red Bull KTM’s Marc Coma of Spain has finished second in Stage 7 and secured the overall victory in the 2014 Rally dos Sertões in Brazil, today, winning the event by a margin of 3 minutes and 23 seconds.

Coma completed the total rally distance with a time of 18 hours, 21 minutes and 51 seconds, outrunning Team HRC Honda’s Paulo Goncalves of Portugal despite winning three of the rally’s seven rounds while Goncalves won four of them. The real difference in the rally was a navigational mistake made by Goncalves during Stage 5 on Thursday, which cost him 3 minutes. Before that, the win appeared to be set to go either to Coma or Goncalves. Brazil’s own Joan Azevedo finished third aboard his Honda Mobil Rally CRF450.

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 6 he said it had been important to control the race and deploy conservative tactics, because navigation was difficult. Goncalves won the stage to undo some of the damage done in Stage 5, but despite winning Stage 7 today, he could not pull back enough time to make a difference in the final results.

The win in Brazil marked Coma’s second career Rally dos Sertões title, and it bolsters Coma’s lead in the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship with only the Morocco Rally remaining.

“Today was a long had day, especially with the pressure of being in the lead,” Coma said. “This is a very hard rally to win, and the level of the riders is very high. Paulo (Goncalves) was pushing all the time, so I’m very happy with the final results. I came into the rally with a lead of 10 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.”

FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, Round 5
Rally dos Sertões
Brazil
Results: August 30, 2014 (Stage 7 of 7)

Stage 7
1. Paulo Goncalves-Hon/01:34:57
2. Marc Coma-KTM/+00:01:14
3. Jean Azevedo-Hon/+00:01:50
4. Ruben Faria-KTM/+00:03:32
5. Helder Rodrigues-Hon/+00:03:43
6. Jordi Viladoms-KTM/+00:04:44
7. David Casteu-KTM/+00:04:59
8. Sam Sunderland-KTM/+00:05:02
9. Ike Klaumann-Hon/+00:06:13
10. Ramon Oliveira Sacilotti-Kaw/+00:07:35

Rally dos Sertoes Final Overall Standings (After 7 of 7 stages)
1. Marc Coma-KTM/18:21:51
2. Paulo Goncalves-Hon/+00:03:23
3. Jean Azevedo-Hon/+00:14:05
4. Helder Rodrigues-Hon/+00:21:46
5. Jordi Viladoms-KTM/+00:26:37
6. Sam Sunderland-KTM/+00:33:37
7. Ike Klaumann-Hon/+00:43:41
8. Ruben Faria-KTM/+00:46:36
9. David Casteu-KTM/+00:47:35
10. Ramon Oliveira Sacilotti-Kaw/+01:05:57