Last, final step requires a lot of energy and efforts not only of pilots but of the whole team as well.
Incredibly beautiful dunes of the Gobi Desert made the first part of today’s “double” special. The dunes are considered the tallest in the world. This is why the sportsmen, photographers and just tourists come here. But the dunes are tricky and not everyone can pass them without adventures. The second half of the SS - more technical and navigational - returned the racers to reality and made them concentrate on the route and the speed.
There was no surprise in the trucks. Showing stable result during the whole race, KAMAZ-master pilots took the lead and all that they should do now is keep the positions till the very finish. But unfortunately not all our pilots were lucky today. On the first half of the special Eduard Nikolaev faced with the reduction issue, and the crew could continue the race only on the rear wheel drive, the repair of the drive gear would have taken at least three hours. The decision was made not to continue the race but to go to the bivouac by public roads. During the whole rally Eduard showed good speed and will to victory, moreover, if he continued going at the same high pace he could have won back the fourth position with Artur Ardavichus in the overall. The first on the special was Dmitry Sotnikov. After the finish he was hardly standing on his feet, water dehydration played a low down trick with him. There is a container with four liters of drinking water in every truck but it wasn’t enough for the sportsman in hot Chinese sands. Three-minute difference was between him and Anton Shibalov, who showed the best time at the first half of the special and Airat Mardeev took the third place being 5 minutes and 18 seconds off the pace. The overall top-three didn’t change: the first position belongs to Dmitry Sotnikov, Anton Shibalov was second and Airat Mardeev was third.
In the cars Stephane Peteransel was the best today, his teammate Cyril Despres finished second and the French Cristian Lavielle took the third position that made the sportsman second in the general classification.
On the evening briefing the organizers announced about cancellation of the 14th special due to heavy rains in the north of China.
It was said: “The final special stage was planned in the mountainous region but the special can be unsafe for the participants and therefore the rally officials made the decision to cancel it from the route of the race.”
Tomorrow crews will have to pass a road section of the 14th stage and just come to the finish, but meeting the allowed timing. The official results of the rally will be published before the finish ceremony of the Silk Way Rally in Xi’an on 22 July.
Quotations:
Airat Mardeev, pilot of KAMAZ-master Team, crew # 300:
“Today we opened both specials. We passed the first special well, saw that Anton Shibalov was driving not far from us. On the second part of the special everything was different, it was very hot, the sand was loose, low dunes were “plump”. Cars made a lot of tracks, and we also tried to find our own way, as it is difficult to follow their path, we had to make our own track. All in all the day was good, a lot of impassibility, springs were “flying”. What is important for us is to keep the current result till the end.”
Anton Shibalov, KAMAZ-master Team, crew # 312:
“Perhaps, it is the most difficult day in the whole race. Today there was everything: wet sands, dry sands, off-road sections, there were no roads at all, only very overgrown and tricky ones. The first half of the special was very picturesque and more comfortable: beautiful views, lakes in the sands... And the second half was “hot”. There were a lot of difficult off piste sections. On the first half of the special we drove near Airat, and we were alone on the second half.”
Eduard Nikolaev, pilot of KAMAZ-master Team, crew # 303:
“During the whole day we were going well, at the end of the first special there was a breakdown of transmission. Dmitry Sotnikov was driving ahead –we work for the team now because we had lost time before. It seemed that we were going at a good speed, but suddenly there was a strong crack, vibration, we realized that there is something wrong with the transmission. We had a look and saw that it was the front gear. At that time we didn’t finish even the first half of the special, were moving to the second half, but we decided that we can’t go on without the front reduction unit, left the sands and drove to the bivouac. We would get a penalty for such an act, around 100 hours, and would join de Rooy, Kolomy but it is not important as the team did well today, showed good performance, judging by the results all the rest participants are far behind. We saw Gerard de Rooy today, and unfortunately he was sick, so wavy dunes were today. We even felt badly when we saw him but then of course this thought vanished. Anyway we want to talk to him, he is so experienced, why it did happen today.”
RESULTS OF THE 13th STAGE
Cars:
1. PETERHANSEL Stéphane (Peugeot Sport) – 5h12:59
2. DESPRES Cyril (Peugeot Sport) +1:39
3. LAVIEILLE Christian (Baicmotor Racing Team) +19:41
4. LU Binglong (Baicmotor Racing Team) +23:35
5. HAN Wei (Geely SMG) +29:46
Trucks:
1. SOTNIKOV Dmitry (КАМАZ-master) – 5h29:00
2. SHIBALOV Anton (КАМАZ-master) +3:00
3. MARDEEV Airat (КАМАZ-master) +5:18
4. VIAZOVICH Siarhei (МАZ-SPORTauto) +31:39
5. VASILEVSKI Aleksandr (МАZ-SPORTauto) +33:58
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
Cars:
1. DESPRES Cyril (Peugeot Sport) – 41h46:25
2. LAVIEILLE Christian (Baicmotor Racing Team) +1h04:39
3. HAN Wei (Geely SMG) +1h11:29
4. AMOS Eugenio (Two Wheels Drive Ford) +2h12:12
5. PETERHANSEL Stéphane (Peugeot Sport) +2h37:27
Trucks:
1. SOTNIKOV Dmitry (КАМАZ-master) - 43ч45:38
2. SHIBALOV Anton (КАМАZ-master) +6:04
3. MARDEEV Airat (КАМАZ-master) +23:12
4. ARDAVICIUS Artur (Astana Motorsport De Rooy Iveco) +2h40:27
5. VIAZOVICH Siarhei (МАZ-SPORTauto) +6h28:56
