Andrey Karginov takes the leadership of the general standings

January 16, El Salvador

Promo document distributed to journalists tells that Chile occupies the first position on the integral indicator of competitiveness in Latin America now (27 in the world ranking), enters in the top-30 on solvency ranking. Country's major industry is mining (copper and other metals), Chile is the world's largest exporter of copper. Today's destination is just copper deposit. The rally bivouac is located in El Salvador which considered one of the richest reserves of this metal on the globe. Greenish vitriol color of mountains (certificate of deposits of copper ore) was predominant in today's route scenery. The first thing that catches the eye on assistance route is damaged vehicles of competitors who were forced to drop out of the rally. It is clear evidence that the current Dakar is merciless as towards people and vehicles. Numbers of participants in trucks category reduced by nearly half.

The main event of the day - Andrey Karginov won the stage, Gerard de Rooy is 15'51" behind stage leader. Andrey takes the leadership of the general standings 2 stages before the finish of the Dakar!

"We drove fast today, but we're not going to speed off not to puncture tyres, there were a lot of sharp rocks. There were enough risky situations, but fortunately we were lucky. We are often in front of dangerous moments, but the main task of the pilot is to get out of them without consequences. For example, we went today on a narrow edge of a mountain and dived steeply down by inertia. We were dragged down, and we could to climb up only on the rocks after turning all blockings, "- said the hero of the day Andrey Karginov after the stage.

And here is a description of the day from Evgeny Yakovlev, co-pilot of Eduard Nikolaev: "The track was relatively fast. There were lots of broken roads, old tracks, off-road. Promised dunes were not quite dunes and more sand hills. The sand of today’s stage was like in Astrakhan. The special was long, but not as difficult as it looked before the start. There were plenty of rocky roads, very dangerous in terms of punctures. We saw that De Rooy has punctured his tyre. There wasn’t a lot of dust ahead and we could to overtake easily. We passed De Rooy when he changed the tyre, but after 70 kilometers he had caught us. We let him pass immediately and were behind him for some kms. Eduard tried to go safely without risking. De Rooy was very fast and took many risks. We didn’t want to fight with him as if you go to speed off, you can lose everything."

Everything was ok for the crew of Anton Shibalov. He is fifth today. Due to yesterday's problems on stage Dmitry Sotnikov started not from the best position today. Just after the start he immediately tried to overtake a line of cars. He did it successfully, but it seems at this moment he damaged tyre, which should be changed. He lost for about 11 minutes.

This evening, the Kamaz driver Andrey Karginov leads the Dutchman's Iveco by 7'56, producing the day's major change in the general standings. This is another illustration of the fact that the Dakar is unpredictable until the finish. Perhaps Andrey Karginov exaggerated a little saying to TV group that the fight is just beginning. Now just 2 stages from Valparaiso! Perhaps this position is worthy of respect – it should be wrong to relax now.

11th Stage of the rally Dakar. Truck standings.

Overall after the 11th Stage