Marc Coma won the fifth stage of the Rally dos Sertoes, arriving one minute and twenty seconds ahead of Cyril Despres, but who stays as leader of the overall classification. The Repsol rider started second after yesterday`s marathon stage, when he finished almost two minutes behind Despres. His teammate, Jordi Viladoms, oficially retired from the rally after breaking his engine yesterday. the Repsol rider was able to change the broken engine today, and will start last tomorrow, the penalty for this new engine.
In today`s stage Marc Coma had the added difficulty of riding with the tyres he used yesterday, because after yesterday`s marathon stage the participants could not receive any type of assistance. The Repsol rider set a good pace on the 144km special that joined Paranã and Palmas, characterised by a first part that was more technical and slow, in a zone with vegetation, and the final part that was faster, on dusty tracks of red soil just like those found in darkest Africa.In yesterday`s stage, 482km, 431km of them timed, the participants found a very tough stage, very similar to the rally as a whole, but much longer. Tomorrow Monday sees the sixth stage, between Palmas and Balsas, with the longest special in this rally, 536km that will be timed.Marc ComaToday`s stage was short but quite complicated, because we had just completed a marathon stage and the tyres were very worn. The tracks here are very aggressive on the tyres, and I had to go very carefully. These are turning out to be very complicated stages and not very pleasant as we are riding on laterite tracks and there is a lot of dust. This is a zone that reminds me a lot of when the Dakar arrives in darkest Africa. After not racing in two raids, I am aware that I am getting my pace back. Tomorrow we are expecting another tough day, with the longest special in the raid, and it could be an important day.Jordi ViladomsYesterday the engine broke 40km from the finish, and I was towed in by another rider. As I could not receive any assistance I could not repair it, so today I started by dragging the bike a few metres, and so be able to retire officially. Owing to the jumps and the toughness of the stage, my radiator broke so I lost the water that is what broke the engine. Today we changed it and tomorrow we will start again, to do some kilometres and take it as a training session. I will be the last to start so I will have to go very carefully because over the next few days I will have to overtake slower riders and that is dangerous as they kick up a lot of dust. But it will let me win some points in the World Championship, and you never know if at the end of the season they will be useful.
