Second half of Dakar-2018 after the rest day in La Paz started with a marathon stage. Having left the informal Bolivian capital, race crews and assistance teams separated. The first took start on 369 km special La Paz-Uyuni , and the other headed to Tupiza, located near Argentinean border.
On bivouac in Uyuni sportsmen were left without assistance of mechanics, and in case of breakdowns they would have to reckon on their own forces. And the Russians had breakdowns, which, unfortunately, they happened on the speed section.
On 135 km of the special a turbocharger on Dmitry Sotnikov’s truck went out of order and the crew lost almost an hour and a half for its change. Approximately 16 minutes were spent by Airat Mardeev’s crew to change the blown on the way wheel. It is disappointing because his speed after the start was very good. The stage leader was the Dutch Ton Van Genugten on his IVECO (4h10m40s), his teammate Argentinean Federico Villagra held the second best result (+00:02:01).
Both sportsmen significantly increased their speed on two last stages, the reason is absolutely unclear. Genugten will do everything in order to enter top-3 in the truck category’s standings, till the end Villagra will try to challenge the top position in the general classification on which Eduard Nikolaev’s crew is currently located. Fortunately, today Eduard’s crew went in a stable way and became third (+00:04:54)in the race classification of the day.
Now it is important to keep the result to the finish in Cordoba. It will be not easy, in the general standings Eduard Nikolaev goes ahead his rival Federico Villagra for 50 minutes, and there are 7 stages of the race ahead.
Assistance crews have their own Dakar. Arriving at bivouac in Tupiza late at night, they found out that it was closed. The race organizers were afraid to let the vehicles to the field due to the heavy rain and concerns that they will not be able to drive out, therefore assistance crews had to spend the night on the road border in their vehicles.
Now in the morning of 14th January it became known that tomorrow’s stage is cancelled and also on the way to Salta the bridge and assistance road were washed out, when it will be opened is in question.
Dakar-2018. Truck Category. 7th Stage Results
VAN GENUGTEN 04:10:40
VILLAGRA +00:02:01
NIKOLAEV + 00:04:54
KOLOMY +00:05:49
MACIK +00:06:11
VIAZOVICH + 0:09:20
ARDAVICHUS +00:18:08
VAN DEN HEUVEL +00:19:11
MARDEEV +00:20:05
SHIBALOV +00:20:11
HUZINK + 00:24:56
VAN KASTEREN + 00:26:38
SUGAWARA + 00:37:18
SOLTYS + 00:56:11
ROTSAERT + 01:22:48
SABATE + 01:24:24
KADSHAI + 01:36:05
ZUURMOND + 02:00:16
SOTNIKOV + 02:13:27
INGELS + 02:13:54
Dakar-2018. Truck Category. General classification after 7th Stage
NIKOLAEV (KAMAZ) 23:43:01
VILLAGRA (IVECO) +0:49:47
VIAZOVICH (MAZ) +2:49:08
MACIK (LIAZ) +3:15:35
VAN GENUGTEN (IVECO) +4:24:05
MARDEEV (KAMAZ) +4:25:25
SUGAWARA (HINO) +4:37:25
ARDAVICHUS (IVECO) +4:55:13
VAN DEN HEUVEL (SCANIA) 5:40:15
HUZINK (RENAULT) +5:44:58
SOTNIKOV (KAMAZ) +6:03:46
SOLTYS (TATRA) +6:35:53
SHIBALOV (KAMAZ) +7:28:17
KOLOMY (TATRA) +8:35:58
