“Due to the great number of huge dunes, the 12th stage will become one of the most challenging on the route”, - that is how the race organizers described today’s special and they were right. For some contestants dunes became an impossible target.
The main rival of KAMAZ-master Team Martin Kolomy left the battle for podium losing a lot of time on 80 km before the finish. The reason was a breakdown of the steering system after bad landing from a dune.
The overall leader Dmitry Sotnikov got stuck a bit on the top of a dune where he lost around 10 minutes. This challenging situation could take much more time and cost the first place in the general classification, if Airat Mardeev didn’t pull out Dmitry’s truck. Despite the short stop and help to his teammate, Airat could show the best time in the trucks. The second place was taken by Anton Shibalov, who was an “opener” on almost the whole special. Eduard Nikolaev was third on the special, losing only 3 minutes and 1 second to Airat. Gerard de Rooy went at a very good pace, but a punctured wheel made him finish fourth, he was 10 minutes and 25 seconds off the pace.
Dunes were not easy for cars as well. The overall leader Cyril Despres lost time due to the hydraulic issue. Bryce Menzies made a mistake in navigation and it costed him second position in the standings. The fastest on the special was Christian Lavielle from Baicmotor Racing Team. The Frenchman was the same fast on every waypoint and on the finish brought 19 seconds to Liu Kun on Geely SMG. The third time had Liu’s teammate Han Wei, who was a bit more than 6 minutes off the pace.
The classification in the trucks more and more shows advantage of those who start later, so let’s see what tomorrow’s tough stage will show.
Quotations:
Airat Mardeev, pilot of KAMAZ-master Team, crew #300:
“Today was a working day. A lot of sands. In the description there were only 30% of sands, in fact there were 70%. Sands are very short, I mean we drove from one dune to another and there was no place to speed up. Of course, leaders in the cars laid the track, but it was difficult to go there by truck. I saw Anton Shibalov’s tyre prints, I saw that he didn’t follow their path exactly making the path wider. We also drove a lot on the soil. We stopped once due to the gear box issue: only 4th gear was working and it was impossible to change it, we had to restart. We spent on it a minute and a half. Then we saw Dima standing on the top of the dune. When we came, Dima’s crew had already prepared a tether, so we didn’t spend much time on that also, just pulled the truck out and drove further. We saw Kolomy who was standing in the sands, we understood that only Anton is ahead and hoped to see him after the finish. And so it happened.”
Anton Shibalov, pilot of KAMAZ-master Team, crew #312:
“Today’s stage was opened by Kolomy, but after second sands started the off-road section. There we overtook him and the whole stage were driving first. And on the second sands we already were “openers” - there had been only several cars before us. But cars can’t guide the trucks in the sands, they are more like a tip. Anyway we sit higher and see better. Today’s sands seemed easier for us than those after the rest day. We passed them in a stable and accurate pace, we didn’t “sit” on dunes. There were places where we couldn’t take them from the first time, we had to climb again on another trajectory.”
Dmitry Sotnikov, KAMAZ-master Team, crew # 303:
“The special was not easy, but so it was for all crews. The dune section was extreme, it was seen that ten cars that were going ahead faced with a lot of problems. A lot of different paths, and it was hard to understand which one we needed to follow, not all prints were suitable for us and we even “sat” on a dune. First we dug ourselves, but then Airat came to us and pulled out. Eduard Nikolaev’s crew also helped us there, that’s why we lost minimum time. The engine was lack of power and therefore we had problems: we used to jump from small dunes. We tried to do our best, searched for a best way and what is the most important – we could reach the finish.”
Gerard de Rooy, Petronas De Rooy Iveco Team, crew # 302:
“A good stage, I really enjoyed the dunes, but in the end we started to lose power, and then lost 8 minutes due to the puncture. Nevertheless, the stage was not bad for us. It is great that we are still in the race.”
RESULTS OF THE 12TH STAGE
Cars:
1. LAVIELLE Christian (Baicmotor Racing Team) – 3h54:21
2. LIU Kun (Geely SMG) +0:19
3. HAN Wei (Geely SMG) +6:24
4. BINGLONG Lu (Baicmotor Racing Team) +9:42
5. ALRAHJI Yazeed (X-Raid MINI)+9:56
Trucks:
1. MARDEEV Airat (КАМАZ-master) – 4h04:08
2. SHIBALOV Anton (КАМАZ-master) +2:15
3. NIKOLAEV Eduard (КАМАZ-master) +3:01
4. DE ROOY Gerard (Petronas De Rooy Iveco) +10:25
5. VIAZOVICH Siarhei (MAZ-SPORTauto) +13:33
GENERAL STANDINGS
Cars:
1. DESPRES Cyril (Peugeot Sport) – 36h31:47
2. HAN Wei (Geely SMG) +43:22
3. LAVIEILLE Christian (Baicmotor Racing Team) +46:37
4. MENZIES Bryce (X-Raid MINI) +1h15:51
5. AMOS Eugenio (Two Wheels Drive Ford) +1h41:07
Trucks:
1. SOTNIKOV Dmitry (КАМАZ-master) – 38h16:38
2. SHIBALOV Anton (КАМАZ-master) +3:04
3. MARDEEV Airat (КАМАZ-master) +17:54
4. ARDAVICIUS Artur (Astana Motorsport De Rooy Iveco) +2h03:14
5. NIKOLAEV Eduard (КАМАZ-master) +2h15:53
