Barreda blasts to first major HRC Rally win in Aragon

The defending title-holder from 2016 was one of the favourites for success on the wide-ranging and challenging trek 350km through the north eastern region in Spain and took the event by the scruff of the neck right from the short prologue section on his CRF450. Across the next two days Barreda was flanked by Metge (the Frenchman only falling foul of a GPS penalty on the final stage) as the Hondas filled first and third spots on the final box.

“It is not easy to win the Baja Aragon and I am very happy to have won four times here,” said former motocrosser Barreda who was also glad of the confidence shot with some other big competitions coming up through the summer and autumn months. “Although I have had some minor mishaps, I feel satisfied to have been able to overcome the circumstances when things weren’t going right. I put in a good performance and so I'm happy about it. We were looking for pace in this rally and I think we showed greater rhythm than the rest of the participants.”

Honda can now look to another journey across the Atlantic. The Atacama Rally in Chile constitutes round three of the FIM chase in the second week of August and should see Paolo Goncalves and Kevin Benavides back in play with the CRF450 Rally.