28/08 - 5th Stage - São Francisco (MG)/Diamantina (MG) - MARATHON
Initial Liaison: 223.57 km
Trecho especial: 335.98 km
Final Liaison: 85.89 km
Total: 645.44 km
The marathon stage, disputed on Thursday (28th), between the cities San Francisco and Diamantina (Minas Gerais State), marked the 5th stage of the 22th edition of the Rally dos Sertões. The competitors had the biggest stage of the rally this year, with a total of 645.44 km, 335.98 of special test.
In Bikes, the Spaniard Marc Coma (KTM Red Bull Factory Team) won his third stage in five and is on the lead, now with seven minutes of advantage to the Portuguese Paulo Gonçalves (Team Honda HRC), who was third on the day.
In quads, the event saw another change in the overall leadership. The current champion, Robert Nahas (RNN Sports) won and is the new leader. In UTVs, another change in the first position, with the duo André Sawaya and Eduardo Costa (S2 Rally / Bike Box) achieving the top.
Jean Azevedo is the first runner up in the stage and is the best Brazilian in Bikes Besides Coma and Gonçalves, who has also shown a great performance is the Brazilian Jean Azevedo (Honda Mobil Rally). One of the most experienced and successful riders of the national rally, he was the first runner up today. Overall, he is in the third place.
Coma said at the end of the day that he liked the stage and he is optimistic. "It was the most complete stage of the rally, with much trial, much navigation and I tried to keep a good pace. I'm very happy for today. It was a great day", said the Spaniard.
Quads: Nahas wins the marathon stage
In the quads category, only 11 disputed the marathon stage. And the result of the special test changed the first position. Current champion Robert Nahas (RNN Sports) won with a time of 4h057min02s and overcame the Polish Rafal Sonik (Sonik Team) in the overall standings and also the Brazilian Marcelo Medeiros Maranhão (Taguatur Racing), who was the leader. Medeiros fell at the km 268 of the special and lost many time to recover.
Nahas - who has already won two special tests - opened a good advantage in the overall leadership with 22min10s to Medeiros and 29min08s to Sonik.
UTVs
Nineteen UTVs started for the marathon stage on Thursday. Jose Helio Rodrigues and co-driver Edmilson Camargo Jr. (Polaris Racing / Ze and Faces 4x4) were one of the "victims" of the day. At the km 33 of the special test, they had a failure in their UTV and couldn´t continue
Good for duo André Sawaya / Eduardo Costa (S2 Rally / Bike Box), who won the marathon stage (5h20min36s). Bruno Sperancini / Lourival Roldan (Casarini Can-Am) were the first runner up.
Sawaya / Costa lead in the overall (16h48min02), with more than nine minutes of advantage for Rodrigo Varela and João Arena (Divino Fogão Rally Team.
6th Stage: Diamantina (MG) / Diamantina (MG)
On Friday (29th), the competitors will start and finish in Diamantina (Minas Gerais State) in the dispute of the 6th stage of the Rally dos Sertões 2014. There will be 204.29 km in total on the sixth day (0 km of initial liaison, 178.87 km of special and 25.42 km of final liaison).
Between Goiânia and Belo Horizonte, Sertões will go through five more cities. Three will host the rally for the first time: Catalão, Paracatu and São Francisco. Caldas Novas and Diamantina complete the route.
Besides bikes, quads and UTVs, the Sertões also has disputes in the categories of cars and trucks. There are seven stages, more than 2600 km. The dispute has 197 competitors in total from seven countries: Brazil, Chile, Spain, France, Poland, Portugal and the UK. In bikes and quads category, the Sertões will also be valid for the FIM World Cross Country Rally.
Communication FGCom - www.fgcom.com.br -