Team HRC Honda rider Paulo Goncalves has won the OiLybia Morocco Rally, final round of the FIM Cross Country World Championship, and taken the world title from his arch-rival Marc Coma.

Debuting Honda’s new CRF450 RALLY, Goncalves topped Red Bull KTM’s Coma, who was aboard the brand new KTM 450 Rally bike.

“I’m over the moon to clinch the title at the final race for Speedbrain,” Goncalves said. “We’ve shown before at the previous five races that we have the winning speed everywhere.

“The team has always done a great job, we were able to keep the title fight open with our Speedbrain bike against world champ Marc Coma all the way until this week’s final showdown. It´s even more exciting to have my team prepare our new Honda CRF450 Rally in the usual perfect way. It gave me the confidence to attack.

“I began today´s final stage with a very small advantage and managed to keep it. It was a super narrow title decision, I had to give it all. Many thanks to Speedbrain and to Honda for the brilliant bike, also to my friend and teammate Joan Barreda for his perfect team play.”

Goncalves won two of the six stages in Morocco, his teammate Joan Barreda won three stages. Today’s final stage victory went to KTM Australia’s Ben Grabham in a stunning result for the desert racing legend on his way to sixth overall.

2013 OiLybia Morocco Rally results:
1. Paulo Goncalves 17h08m59s
2. Marc Coma +3m44
3. Joan Barreda +7m39
4. Chaleco Lopez +32m58
5. Sam Sunderland +45m57
6. Ben Grabham +55m08
7. Kurt Caselli +1h04m32
8. Olivier Pain +1h06m09
9. Alessandro Botturi +1h08m58
10. Frans Verhoeven +1h41m38