The first special of the Silk Way Rally can be described in one word: “slippery”! Such comments were given by many racers in the end of the day. Today the best results were shown by sportsmen experienced in classical rally. The principal of the route is as follows: the first always gives away. And it was seen on today’s special. It’s not surprising that the best time was shown by Sebastien Loeb, who started third, and in the truck category the leader was Martin Kolomy, who started twelfth. Experience and skills of driving in the mud and gravel on rally tracks, where every turn can bring you various surprises, and where engine power plays much less role than torque, brought good luck to the sportsmen.
The team leader on the SWR Sergey Savostin called this day unlucky for the team: “All in all there wasn’t any catastrophe, it is only the beginning and 60 km of the route, but taking into consideration that tomorrow nothing changes and the track will be the same, today we will analyze the past special and take measures to have better results tomorrow”.
By the way, the crew of Anton Shibalov (the first among KAMAZ trucks on today’s special) is only five minutes behind the leader.
Airat Mardeev told: “The main difficulty of the track is that it is slippery, dirty and wet. Starting first they had to clean the path and it turned to be the main difficulty. When the crew of van den Brink outran us, they immediately slowed down and we were going very close to each other”
This is how the main rival of KAMAZ Gerard de Rooy described today’s stage: “Today we had fun: mud and moisture made our day. Anyway we are very happy with the truck, excellent weight distribution, but it is not a reason to relax. We went at a good speed, we could even outrun several times, so we don’t find 4 minutes’ delay a great trouble”.
Also in the evening the team could communicate with partners and fans, one of which is Ruslan – he specially came a long way to Cheboksary to wish good luck to his favorite team.
GENERAL STANDINGS AFTER THE FIRST STAGE
Cars
1. Sebastien Loeb (Peugeot Sport) – 42:02
2. Stephane Peterhansel (Peugeot Sport) +0:29
3. Cyril DESPRES (Peugeot Sport) +2:14
4. Yazeed ALRAJHI (X-Raid MINI) +3:38
5. Bryce MENZIES (X-Raid MINI) +3:38
6. Christian LAVIEILLE (Baicmotor) +3:43
7. Wei HAN (Geely SMG) +8:20
8. Jerome PELICHET (Raid Lynx Toyota) +9:50
9. Aleksandr SEMENOV (BFCEC Sport Газ) +9:53
10. Mikhail KOSTRUKOV (ГАЗ Рейд Спорт) +11:01
Trucks
1. Martin KOLOMY (Tatra Buggyra Racing) – 49:43
2. Ales LOPRAIS (Instaforex Loprais Team) +0:51
3. Ton VAN GENUTGEN (Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco) +2:03
4. Siarhei VIAZOVICH (МАZ-SPORTauto) +2:35
5. Gerard DE ROOY (Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco) +4:01
6. Artur ARDAVICHUS (Astana Motorsport Team De Rooy Iveco) +4:06
7. Pascal DE BAAR (Riwald Dakar Team Renault) +4:07
8. Anton Shibalov (КАМАZ-master) +4:18
9. Aliaksei VISHNEUSKI Алексей Вишневский (МАZ-SPORTauto) +5:29
10. Maarten VAN DEN BRINK (Mammoet Rallysport Renault) +5:52
