Marc Coma wins stage 3 of the Rally dos Sertões

The rider Marc Coma has reaffirmed his lead in the 2014 Rally dos Sertões. Coma won yesterday’s third stage – his second partial victory – of the Brazilian race, a 360-kilometre leg, 209 of them timed, between the towns of Catalão and Paracatu. In doing so, the Avià native extends his overall classification lead to three minutes and 19 seconds over second-placed Paulo Gonçalves, and to three minutes and 34 seconds over third-placed Jean Azevedo.

After the opening stage and the shortened special stage on Monday, Tuesday’s leg was the first demanding test of this marathon rally. Coma started from third position and again set a good pace, although in the final section he had to ease off a little due to tyre wear, to claim his second stage victory in this rally, after the one he won on the first day. Marc completed the special stage in two hours, 36 minutes and 10 seconds, one minute and 18 seconds ahead of Azevedo, second on today’s stage, and two minutes and 48 seconds ahead of Gonçalves, third.

The rider will set off today from Paracatu bound for Sao Francisco. Ahead lie 585 kilometres, 364 of them special stage, in what will be the fourth stage of the fifth and penultimate round of the 2014 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.

Statements from Marc Coma:

Today was a longer and more complicated stage, with a navigation section and a final part that was much more technical, where I was already running short on tyres. In the last few kilometres I had to ease off the pace a little. I was starting from a good position and I tried to recover as much time as possible. I’m happy with how things are going but, as we can see in the standings, the rally is very tight and small details will decide the race. That is why we have to stay focused at every moment.

Source | AMV