Hero MotoSports Team Rally missed out on the podium but team riders Sebastian Buhler and Franco Caimi finished a strong fourth and fifth respectively at the Andalucia Rally.
Rodrigues and Caimi started the final stage with the best chances of achieving a podium for the team.
Rodrigues made a strong start to the stage but settled on the side of caution owing to a couple of crashes and brought the bike home safely in the seventh position.
This was enough for him to earn a fourth place in the overall standings, building upon his win in the Prologue and a strong performance throughout the rally.
"Today was a difficult day for me as I had a couple of crashes and hurt my hand and knee a little bit. So, I decided to slow down and focus on getting the bike to the finish safely," Rodrigues said.
Caimi also made a strong final dash and managed to secure a fifth place in the last stage of the rally, his efforts rewarding him with a fifth place in the overall standings too. With this, he managed to achieve a top five finish in his very first rally in Hero MotoSports colors.
"I focused today on improving my feeling and confidence on the bike so I am happy to be at the end and with the way things have gone in my first rally with my new team," Caimi said.
Sebastian Buhler, who had received a 15 minutes penalty yesterday owing to an engine change effectively lost his chance of an overall podium finish.
Yet, he put the new engine to good use and achieved good speed to finish the final stage in fourth place. He finished the rally in the eighth position in the overall rankings.
"The bike worked really well and the team also made a great job so everything was perfect. I feel that I am getting better day by day and even though the results could have been better, overall we had a very good rally. I want to express my special thanks to our team and fans across the world," Buhler said.
Next up for Hero MotoSports Team Rally will be the Rally Kazakhstan scheduled from June 7–13.
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