A mechanical failure during the first stage leaves the Repsol rider out of the fight for the overall victory, but he was able to win two legs.
The countdown for the 2012 Dakar has already started and, in the final phase of the preparations, Marc Coma took part this week in the Morocco Rally. He did not start in the best way as he was out of competition due to a mechanical failure 20 kilometres before the end of the first stage. Nevertheless, after receiving a hard penalty, the Repsol rider was able to continue the race and gather valuable kilometres for the next Dakar, in January, and take two stage victories.
The Morocco rally offers, two months and a half before the toughest rally of the world, the ideal setting to finish the required preparation to face it at the highest level. After being part for years of the iconic African race, Morocco held this week a new edition of the race where Marc Coma lost all chances of victory 20 kilometres before the end of the first leg. Despite reaching the first control in first position, the rider from Avià suffered a failure that left him out of the race before the end of the first stage.
After receiving a penalty of four hours plus the time of the last rider classified in the leg, Coma continued the race with the aim to gather competitive kilometres. He won in the next day’s stage, was third in the third leg, fourth on Thursday and won again yesterday in the fifth leg, finishing fourth today. Taking advantage of the varied and demanding terrain of Morocco, always very technical both on rocky tracks or soft dunes, Coma was able to set a very high pace, practice the navigation and test different settings on his KTM 450 Rally, and he finished the race in tenth position with a very positive feeling.
Marc Coma
“We are very satisfied with the job we did and with our overall feeling, as we were able to try new set-ups for the bike, so we go back home with a lot of information. To be left out of the podium the first day is a fight with yourself to keep the concentration and set short-term aims. It was a good rally, though honestly it felt a bit too long. Now we need to rest, as we chained the Pharaoh’s Rally with the Morocco Rally and we need to digest all this information and keep working in this last phase of preparations for the 2012 Dakar”.
