On the stage Ufa-Kostanai sportsmen had to overcome 329,25 km of the final Russian special, that consisted of fast tracks with lots of changes of direction. Fast, technical tracks among bushes, high grass and thorough work with the road book – that’s how one could describe this SS. Swampy areas were changed by steppes, and rains were gradually changed by the sun. All that make a special more diverse and prepares racers to different surprises on the route.
In the top of the car category still the same people are in the lead. The winner of the first not swampy area became Sebastien Loeb, Stephane Peterhansel finished in 4 min 34 sec after him. But the main surprise was the third place in the cars - Zhou Yong from Chinese team BP YONG TOYOTA showed an excellent result, he overcame Cyril Despres for 40 seconds. KAMAZ-master Team’s fans remember him since Dakar-2014, when Andrey Karginov’s crew had to put him on the wheels on the dramatic last stage of the South American rally.
In the truck category Siarhei Viazovich became the hero of the day by winning his first ever stage in Silk Way Rally and Dakar races. The first KAMAZ that appeared at the finish was Anton Shibalov’s one, and straight after him went Dmitry Sotnikov and Airat MArdeev, everyone had their own positive impressions from the stage and only a few-minute gap separated them in the overall.
Breakdown of cardan shaft costed Eduard Nikolaev two hours of lost time. Problems with suspension also made Gerard de Rooy and Martin van den Brink lose time. Yesterday’s leaders slipped down the standings, giving place to Martin Kolomy and Anton Shibalov. After three stages the situation in the top is far from being stable. Two more weeks of the race and plenty of kilometres await the sportsmen, and it’s clear that the main battle in the heavy category is still ahead.
Quotations
Dmitry Sotnikov: “We went fast. When we were overrunning our rivals we thought that they had problems, so slow they were. On one turn we saw that Viazovich was catching us up but we tried not to force events and go at our own pace accurately and without mistakes – it was the main target for today. Navigation was uneasy and the less rivals there were ahead the less noticeable treads were, high grass was also confusing but we did it.”
Airat Mardeev: “Today was a kind of tire lottery. Unfortunately, we didn’t make a correct choice, we thought there would be plenty of mud, but there wasn’t, therefore we had to go on tires for mud on dry soil, we could lose a bit, but in general we are satisfied. The main thing in navigation was attentiveness and we didn’t make mistakes”.
Siarhei Viazovich, today’s winner in the trucks: “Since the very start of the special I felt that something was wrong in the truck, and strange as it may seem I started to pray for not having anything broken. And it helped, we went at a good pace, strong rivals were ahead, they didn’t bother me though I had to overrun them. We caught up all leaders, only Eduard Nikolaev stayed behind, but he is still not here, so we can say that we’ve won today”.
Gerard de Rooy:“We started second, quite quickly overran van den Brink and were going first. We quickly found correct tracks and decided not to cut turns. Yes, it could help to save some time but we have a new truck and we didn’t want to risk. After a while KAMAZ went ahead of us, and I saw the difference of my truck and theirs. They just drove away on the turns. And at the very end I had problems with suspension – so far these are first problems with our truck.”
Martin van den Brink: “We felt something wrong with the truck but we thought it was a tire puncture and changed it, but it turned out that it wasn’t. One part of suspension came off and cut the tire. We lost approximately 15 minutes for that. But a long race and the whole battle are still ahead.”
RESULTS OF THE THIRD STAGE
Cars:
1. Sébastien LOEB (Peugeot Sport) – 3ч10:44
2. Stéphane PETERHANSEL (Peugeot Sport) +4:34
3. Yong ZHOU (BP Yong Toyota Hilux) +14:19
4. Cyril DESPRES (Peugeot Sport) +14:59
5. Yazeed ALRAJHI (X-Raid MINI) +18:28
Trucks:
1. Siarhei VIAZOVICH (МАЗ-СПОРТавто) – 3ч33:14
2. Martin KOLOMY (Tatra Buggyra Racing) +0:55
3. Ton VAN GENUGTEN (De Rooy Iveco) +3:39
4. Dmitry Sotnikov (КАМАZ-mаster) +4:34
5. Airat Mardeev (КАМАZ-mаster) +5:27
6. Anton Shibalov (КАМАZ-mаster) +6:47
...
16. Eduard Nikolaev (КАМАZ-master) +2:00:40
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
Cars:
1. Sébastien LOEB (Peugeot Sport) – 5ч45:34
2. Stéphane PETERHANSEL (Peugeot Sport) +3:15
3. Cyril DESPRES (Peugeot Sport) +17:12
4. Bryce MENZIES (X-Raid MINI) +38:03
5. Christian LAVIEILLE (Baicmotor) +41:05
Trucks:
1. Martin KOLOMY (Tatra Buggyra Racing) – 6ч45:07
2. Anton SHIBALOV (КАМАZ-master) +2:40
3. Dmitry SOTNIKOV (КАМАZ-master) +5:13
4. Airat MARDEEV (КАМАZ-master) +8:21
5. Ton VAN GENUGTEN (De Rooy Iveco) +10:41
...
12. Eduard NIKOLAEV (КАМАZ-master) +2:18:11
