On Saturday, Red Bull KTM’s Marc Coma won the Rally dos Sertões 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.
Marc Coma, a Red Bull athlete won the rally from Paolo Goncalves of Portugal while Brazilian rider Joan Azevedo took the minor podium place. Red Bull KTM’s Spanish rider took three stage wins and led the overall standings from the end of Stage One to the finish. After 2010, it is Coma´s second victory at the Rally dos Sertões.
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.
Coma: “Today was a long hard day, especially with the pressure of being in the lead. 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.”
The KTM factory team riders compete on the KTM 450 RALLY bike.
Coma’s journey to victory in the Rally dos Sertões:
Stage One – 1st
Stage Two – 3rd
Stage Three – 1st
Stage Four – 2nd
Stage Five – 1st
Stage Six – 3rd
Stage Seven – 2nd
Final Standings Rally dos Sertões after 7 of 7 stages
1. Marc Coma (ESP), KTM, 18:21:51 h
2. Paolo Goncalves (POR), Honda, +3:23 min
3. Jean Azevedo (BRA), Honda, +14:05
4. Helder Rodrigues (POR), Honda, +21:46
5. Jordi Viladoms (ESP), KTM, +26.37
Other KTM
6. Sam Sunderland (GBR), KTM, +33:37 (1 min penalty)
8. Ruben Faria (POR), KTM, +46:36 (13 min penalty)
9. David Casteu (FRA), KTM +47:35 (6 min penalty)