SO CLOSE BUT NOT CLOSE ENOUGH!
Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena put in their first dominating performance of edition 6 of the Silk Way Rally on the tracks and dunes of the 425km special stage to take 07’02” from overall leaders Cyril Despres and David Castera. But Loeb and Elena failed to come within the required distance at way-points 75 and 76, resulting in a four hour penalty.
“It is frustrating, it’s a heavy price to pay,” said the disappointed Frenchman after arriving at the bivouac. “It is an error we will never make again”. Loeb and Elena are now 10th in the general classification.
Despres and Castera were hampered by a clutch problem, losing third gear in the dunes, but managed to bring their DKR 2008 to the finish and score their fifth victory of the rally. Yazeed Al Rahji and Timo Gottschalk (MINI ALL4 Racing) finished second today at 02’30” and are now heading towards the second step on the podium at the ‘Bird’s Nest’ podium. The Saudi-German crew is 30’30” back from the overall leaders. Vladmir Vasilyev and Konstantin Zhlitsov (MNI ALL4 Racing) finished third and are also third overall, 54’04”adrift of the leaders.
Peterhansel and Cottret were fourth, ahead of Han Wei and Jean-Pierre Garcin (SMG Buggy). Sixth in the stage, Harry Hunt and Andreas Schulz (MINI ALL4 Racing) are now fourth overall. Aidyn Rakhimbayev (KAZ) and Anton Nikolaev (RUS) move up to fifth in the general classification, making it four Mini ALL4 Racing cars in the Top 5.
T2 At a glance…
With two days to go before the finish in Beijing, Akira Miura and Laurent Lichtleuchter (Toyota VDJ200) are on their way to the laurels in the production category, with another stage win ahead of Denis Berezovskiy and Ignat Falkov (Toyota Land Cruiser).
Mardeev takes overall lead
Edouard Nikolaev (Kamaz) set best time in the truck category, but the big winner on stage 12 was Airat Mardeev (Kamaz). The Russian crossed the line 02’46” behind his countryman, but 17’05” ahead of Martin Van Den Brink (Renault) to take the overall lead by 12’33”. The Dutchman suffered a puncture at the 300km mark in the dunes and was stopped 10 minutes to make repairs. Dmitry Sotnikov set the third best time, at 05’50” to Mardeev and is now second ion the general classification at 07’52”. Nikolaev and Hou Hongning (Kamaz) complete the big rig Top 5.
Tomorrow : Stage 13 of the 2016 Silk Way Rally, from Alashan to Wuhai (724.89km, with 326.51km of special stage). After the start in a wadi, the track will narrow between the dunes. It will be crucial to follow the correct valleys were several waypoints are located