2014 Sealine Rally Stage 4 Results
The reigning FIM Cross Country Rallies World Champion, Paulo “Speedy” Goncalves, took his first win Thursday of the 2014 Sealine Cross-Country Rally.
The penultimate stage took riders around 404 kilometers across the Qatar desert in the Arabian gulf. From the outset, Goncalves was untouchable, clocking the fastest time aboard his Team HRC Honda CRF450 Rally in stage four. This was the third stage win for Team HRC; the other two (stage 1 and 3) were won by Goncalves’ teammate, Joan “Bang Bang” Barreda.
When Thursday’s stage wrapped up, Goncalves would finish 1:58 minutes ahead of Red Bull KTM’s Jordi Viladoms, and 3:58 minutes ahead of teammate Helder Rodrigues.
Red Bull KTM’s Marc Coma finished stage four in fourth, 6:08 minutes off the top time. But though off the podium, the four-time Dakar winner retains the overall lead. With one stage remaining, Coma is 41 seconds ahead of Barreda, and 1:52 minutes ahead of Viladoms. Gonclaves has moved up to fourth overall, and is only 17 seconds shy of the podium.
The final stage in the 2014 Sealine Rally – round 2 of the FIM Cross Country Rallies World Championship – will put the riders against the clock for 363 kilometers before the finish line that is located where the race began in Umm Sa’id.
2014 Sealine Rally Stage 4 Quotes:
Paulo Goncalves (Team HRC Honda CRF450 Rally) says: “I had a really good race day. I won the stage but more important is the time that I pulled back from my adversaries after the mistake with the navigation on the first day.
“My focus is to be on the podium at the end of the rally. But we have to keep our eye on the target and stay focused, because tomorrow we have 270 kms still to race and it’s easy to slip up and make a mistake, so we’ll wait and see what happens.”
Joan Barreda (Team HRC Honda CRF450 Rally) says: “We had a good day today. We finished in fifth. I started out opening the way and after a few kms Marc caught me up. The stage went according to plan, in fact, everything has gone the way that we hoped. Very good. I’m very pleased. Tomorrow we will try to stay focused and be careful with the navigation to try and catch up with Marc and win the rally.”
2014 Sealine Rally Stage 4 Results:
| 1 | Paulo Goncalves | 04:48’07 | PRT | HONDA | TEAM HRC |
| 2 | Jordi Viladoms | +01’58 | ESP | KTM | KTM Red Bull Rally Factory |
| 3 | Helder Rodrigues | +03‘58 | PRT | HONDA | TEAM HRC |
| 4 | Marc Coma | +06’08 | ESP | KTM | KTM Red Bull Rally Factory |
| 5 | Joan Barreda | +08’08 | ESP | HONDA | TEAM HRC |
| 6 | Jakub Piatek | +01:11’13 | POL | KTM | Team Hanesco |
| 7 | Mohammed Albalooshi | +01:12’48 | UAE | KTM | KTM UAC |
| 8 | Kobus Potgieter | +01:19’47 | SAF | KTM | Team Potgieter |
| 9 | Julián Villarrubia | +01:20’35 | ESP | HONDA | Poland National |
| 10 | Rafal Sonik | +01:21’43 | POL | HONDA | Poland National |
2014 Sealine Rally Overall Standings after 4 of 5 Rounds:
| 1 | Marc Coma | 16:06’11 | ESP | KTM | KTM Red Bull Rally Factory |
| 2 | Joan Barreda | +00’41 | ESP | HONDA | TEAM HRC |
| 3 | Jordi Viladoms | +01’52 | ESP | KTM | KTM Red Bull Rally Factory |
| 4 | Paulo Goncalves | +02’09 | PRT | HONDA | TEAM HRC |
| 5 | Helder Rodrigues | +06’26 | PRT | HONDA | TEAM HRC |
| 6 | Mohammed Albalooshi | +02:47’07 | UAE | KTM | KTM UAC |
| 7 | Mohammed Abu Issa | +03:43’49 | QAT | YAMAHA | Abu Issa |
| 8 | Rafal Sonik | +04:14’03 | POL | HONDA | Poland National |
| 9 | Julián Villarrubia | +04:24’15 | ESP | HONDA | Poland National |
| 10 | Jakub Piatek | +05:06’26 | POL | KTM | Team Hanesco |
