SEALINE, Qatar: Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, Spain’s Marc Coma and Poland’s Rafal Sonik remain firmly on course for victory in the car, motorcycle and quad sections of the Sealine Cross-Country Rally, after the penultimate 406.78km selective section through the Qatar deserts on Thursday.

KTM’s Coma began the day with an overall lead of 10min 12sec in the motorcycle category and that was reduced to 7min 57sec after Joan Barreda Bort claimed the stage win for Team HRC. The leading six riders finished the stage in the customary group, but a favorable starting position and a determined pace ensured that Barreda Bort claimed his first stage win and moved up to second overall.

“You never know until the end, we have a long day to go,” said Coma. “It’s never finished until the end. You cannot just take it easy and that’s it. The level of the stage is high all the time. You cannot relax one minute. It is very difficult to break the group here with the difficult navigation. It is easy for the riders starting behind to catch you. This is the game of this race.”

“Today was normal strategy, I catch the front riders,” said Barreda Bort. “Tomorrow, Marc starts four minutes in front of me and it will be difficult. We need to finish like this. Paulo (Gonçalves) and I were together and we catch the group and there is nothing to do. I think this race needs to change something. It has difficult navigation, but it is the same. Maybe we need a situation where there is a chance to push and make a difference.”

Portugal’s Paulo Gonçalves was his Honda colleague’s closest rival and the second fastest time lifted the CRF 450 rider a place to third overall. Pablo Quintanilla holds fourth and Jordi Viladoms and Sam Sunderland are classified fifth and sixth on their three KTMs.

Al-Attiyah lost time on the day’s special with three flat tires, but he found a competitive pace in between and reached Sealine with the third quickest time. This ensures that the Qatari will start the final stage on Friday with a lead of 16min 36sec in the car category. Thursday’s stage win fell to Saudi Arabian driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi, with Russian Mini driver Vladimir Vasilyev 3min 49sec behind.

“Three punctures today,” admitted the rally leader. “From the beginning we had a flat tire ad we don’t take any risks and we stay behind Vasilyev, but after we decide to pass and then we have another flat tire. We were very careful after that because we only had one spare, but we had a slow puncture in the last 10km and we decide to change it. Altogether we lose 11 minutes, but we only lost five minutes to Yazeed and still have a good lead. Tomorrow I start third and that is a good position for me to manage my race.”

Al-Rajhi was upbeat about his stage win and comfortable second place, as German co-driver Timo Gottschalk explained: “I think this was the day of the punctures. We had two quite early in the stage and then we were careful. We were scared to lose a third tire. At the end it was difficult and we had to find a good rhythm, because it was very rough and rocky. The target now is second place and points for the championship.”

Two-time Dakar Rally winner Joan Roma lost his hold on fifth overall in the car section when he suffered transmission issues with the team’s development gearbox near a sand dune before the first passage control and was unable to continue.

Vasilyev now holds a comfortable third overall, Brazilian Reinaldo Varela is fourth in a second Overdrive Toyota Hilux and Czech Miroslav Zapletal is fifth with his H3 Evo 7.

Mohammed Abu Issa hassled and pressurized Rafal Sonik from the start in the quad category and the Qatari managed to pass the defending Dakar champion and move ahead. But the Pole hit back and when Abu Issa clouted a rock and shed a wheel within sight of the finish, the contest was all but settled in the Pole’s favor with the Honda rider now taking a 40min 23sec lead into the final stage.