On the twelfth day of Dakar weather conditions become simply insupportable. The bivouac of Dakar settled down in the town of Termas-de-Rio-Hondo known for its thermal medical spring and the track of World Cup Racing. The thermometer installed on the car of technical assistance car of Nikolay Strakhov shows 42 degrees of a heat. There is no wind. High sun. People’s faces are flushed, it is simply impossible something to think and of course something to do. There is a wish to go away from here. Accumulated fatigue is aggravated by heat. People are exhausted. The mechanics who are awake for several nights in a row trying to find some fresh to stay motionless.
From the short description and infographic of today's stage Salta – Termas-de-Rio-Hondo it was clear that crews are waited by WRC race on fast, twisting, sometimes stony roads. Organizers made separate special stages for bike and quad categories, and trucks started together with jeeps.
Eduard Nikolaev, the crew 502: "I like such stages as today's. Very fast rally section. It was possible to pass turns in drift. Today the winners were those who slowed down later before turn and earlier started gathering speed after that. "Motor" race. Start was mixed therefore it was often necessary to let pass the jeeps which were caught up with us, it is natural that they go faster on such track".
The stage was successful for "KAMAZ-master" team in spite of the fact that applicants for 3 and 5th places Ales Loprais and Hans Stacey managed to come a little bit nearer respectively to Andrey Karginov and Dmitry Sotnikov.
Crews obviously got into the trainer's prescription to "bring" the first three places in general classification to the finish of Dakar in Buenos Aires and presented to the Russian fans another good day. But there are 2 stages ahead at which everything can happen. In race there are still 43 trucks. Ales Loprais, Hans Stacey and other main rivals of Russians don't lose hope for a podium in the Argentine capital.
