Marc Coma: “We’ll See How The Bike Reacts”

Stage one of the OiLibya Rally of Morocco is complete and already locking out the top five spots are the all-new Honda and KTM Rally bikes.

With Team HRC holding three of those places it seems they’ve got the jump on their Austrian rivals but for everyone it’s still very early days in the rally. A fact not lost on the most experienced rider of them all Marc Coma.

“Today’s stage was quite complicated and navigation was very important. Stage two will be completely different – a lot of stone, a very technical and physically demanding so we must be very focused.”

With five stages still left to run Coma knows the race to the finish will be a long one. Three minutes down on Joan Barreda but 19 seconds up on championship rival Paulo Goncalves there’s nothing to be overly concerned about yet.

“It seems that everything goes as planned. Now we must focus on finding the limit of the bike and work on developing it. We will see how the bike reacts over the next few days.”

Provisional Result Stage 1:

1. Joan Barreda (ESP, Honda) 2:25:40 hrs

2. Marc Coma (ESP, KTM) +00:03:09

3. Paulo Goncalves (PRT, Honda) +00:03:28

4. Helder Rodrigues (PRT, Honda) +00:06:13

5. Chaleco Lopez (CHL, KTM) +00:09:17