The 408km Special went along broad steppe roads. High-speed sections allowed the pilots to demonstrate their skills. Almost all trucks covered the distance at a high speed. Sergei Vyazovich finished in first in 4:00:23. Russian Anton Shibalov was second and his compatriot Ayrat Mardeev third.
Sergei Vyazovich is leading overall, 16 minutes ahead of three KAMAZ crews and Van Den Brink's Renault crew.
“We did the Special encountering no problems. High-speed sections are all about seconds. KAMAZ had some problems: Andrei Karginov had to change a tire. Anton Shibalov tried to keep pace with us,” leader of MAZ-SPORTauto Team Sergei Vyazovich said. However, the crew had issues with the speed control devices from the organizers: they mistakenly recorded overspeeding which may merit penalty minutes. The pilots insisted that the devices be replaced.
MAZ's crew piloted by Aleksei Vishnevsky finished in sixth (4:31:00) and seventh overall, +4:00:06. Vasilevsky, who was keeping up with the leaders, had difficulties on the fourth leg of the stage and lost time.
As it was reported earlier, MAZ-SPORTauto Team set off for the Silk Way Rally across Russia, Mongolia and China in late June. MAZ sport trucks took part in a road show across Russian cities. The race started in Russia's Irkutsk on 6 July and will finish in China's Dunhuang in 10 days. The route exceeds 5,000km, half of which will be special stages. Belarus has fielded three crews. The race will be a test and evaluation master plan for the Belarusian team ahead of Dakar Rally Raid. The crews will hone their skills, trial the trucks and test many know-hows.
