Paulo Goncalves refuses to go quietly in Brazil.
Team HRC Honda’s Paulo Goncalves isn’t going to let Marc Coma win the Rally dos Sertoes without a fight.
Despite a navigational setback during Stage 5 that cost him 3 minutes to leader Marc Coma, Goncalves came back strong in Stage 6, Friday, to take his third stage victory and regain much of the time he lost on Thursday.
Stage 6 began with the riders on the clock straight out of the parc fermé. The stage passed first along an old railway line full of loose rocks, requiring a lot of demanding navigation before opening up into a fast section that had speed controls along the route and then heading into some mountain sections that featured narrow, rutted tracks.
Goncalves had to work hard to catch up with Honda Mobil Rally’s Jean Azevedo, from the Honda Brazil team, but the dust from Azevedo made passing the Brazilian another story. Even so, Goncalves won the stage with a time of 2 hours, 24 minutes and 25 seconds, pulling back some of the time deficit to Coma, who finished third and still leads the overall standings by 4 minutes and 36 seconds.
“Today was a great special,” Goncalves said. “I started from a good position and attacked right away. At kilometer 90 I caught up with Jean Azevedo. It was difficult to overtake him because of all the dust, and it was very dangerous. I won the special, and I closed the gap on Marc by two minutes, but winning the race will not be easy. There is a difference of four minutes, which is significant, but we have one more day of racing, and in a rally like this anything can happen.”
Team HRC’s Helder Rodrigues still has hope for an overall podium finish, but he lost time in one of Stage 6’s tougher sections and good not cut into Azevedo’s advantage over him in the overall standings. Rodrigues remains fourth.
FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, Round 5
Rally dos Sertões
Brazil
Results: August 29, 2014 (Stage 6 of 7)
Stage 6
1. Paulo Goncalves-Hon/2:24’25
2. Jean Azevedo-Hon/+00:01:43
3. Marc Coma-KTM/+00:02:24
4. Sam Sunderland-KTM/+00:03:09
5. Jordi Viladoms-KTM/+00:03:55
6. Helder Rodrigues-Hon/+00:03:59
7. Ike Klaumann-Hon/+00:05:24
8. David Casteu-KTM/+00:06:13
9. Ramon Oliveira Sacilotti-Kaw/+00:07:23
10. Ruben Faria-KTM/+00:09:02
Rally dos Sertões Provisional Standings (After 6 of 7 Stages)
1. Marc Coma-KTM/16:45:39
2. Paulo Goncalves-Hon/+00:04:36
3. Jean Azevedo-Hon/+00:13:29
4. Helder Rodrigues-Hon/+00:19:07
5. Jordi Viladoms-KTM/+00:23:07
6. Sam Sunderland-KTM/+00:29:50
7. Ike Klaumann-Hon/+00:38:42
8. David Casteu-KTM/+00:43:50
9. Ruben Faria-KTM/+00:44:18
10. Ramon Oliveira Sacilotti-Kaw/+00:59:36
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