IN
THE
WIND
P28
BARREDA WINS SEALINE RALLY
H
RC's Joan Barreda did what
he needed to do in the final
stage of the Sealine Cross Coun-
try Rally in Qatar on Friday, April
25 – he beat Red Bull KTM's
Marc Coma in the stage and cap-
tured not only the overall win, but
also the lead in the World Cham-
pionship.
Barreda finished third in Fri-
day's final stage behind team-
mate Helder Rodrigues and Red
Bull KTM's Ruben Faria, but
he was a tick over two minutes
ahead of Coma and that's what
earned him the victory – by a
scant one minute and 23 sec-
onds after over five days and 20
hours of racing.
Rodrigues' victory, meanwhile,
propelled him to the podium, the
Portuguese rider finishing third
overall.
"I'm really pleased," Barreda
said. "Finally, after a whole week
of really hard work, I've made it.
I'm really happy for the victory,
for the team, and for Honda. We
have won here in Qatar, and we
are leading the World Champion-
ship too. This is a just reward for
all the hard work that the team
has done."
Coma didn't seem overly dis-
appointed with finishing second.
"We added some good points
for the World Championship and
we again did a good job," Coma
said. "We had a consistent race
with a good pace, just as we did
in the first round in Abu Dhabi. It
is very difficult to be competitive
in all the stages because they
are really different races. These
rallies are also short and it is only
the small details that decide the
outcome. We tried right up until
the end of the last stage, but it
has not been possible to break
away from the group of riders."
Barreda leads Coma by just
a single point in the World Rally
Raids title chase. The next round
will be in Europe – the Sardinia
Rally, June 7-12.
Joan Barreda won the Sealine Rally
and took over at the top of the World
Rally Raids Championship.
