The first stage of the race has broken all bets made last night, the seven times Dakar winner Stéphane Peterhansel has suffered electronical problems in the new MINI at kilometer 43 of the stage and lost about two hours and a half end of the stage. Mini’s driver has left the way clear for his rivals. The fastest at CP2 are the Russian pilot Zheludov followed by Briskindov withseven minutes fifty-one seconds more, only four fewer than the Ukrainian Nesterchuk.
At the end of the stage the rain has surprised everyone at the bivouac and has flooded several areas of the same cars that were already muddy throughout the period have not noticed the sudden change in weather. The Zheludov Nissan has won the stage ahead of a surprising Holowczyc and Bogdan Novitsky, followed by Boris Gadasin that after completing the stage told us “the stage has been hard not only bad weather we have been complicated a little tour.”
The Start of this year’s race seems calmer than last year. “Well, this year is different, last year we wanted to proove with Volkswagen and this year we intend to finish the rally. I have a new co-driver and need to adapt, today we had some problems with interpretation of the road book, but we are very happy with our positions as they are a good place to start tomorrow” Gadasin said.
The truck category has been a Kamaz Show, Nicolaev signed a sensational stage with the second time scracht surpassing even Holowczyk time. The rest of the team’s drivers have covered the top five with Kabirov, Ardavitchus, Karginov and Mardev. Loprais with the new Tatra only reached the sixt overall. The famous Team De Rooy has suffered damage pathways that have deprived them of a better situation in the table. Hans Stacey has suffered a blowout and the wheel is on fire with what they had to put out the fire and replace the tire. Jo Adua in the second truck have broken the air duct and repair it on the track has made them lose nearly fifty minutes.
Difficult conditions for X-raid on opening leg of Russian event.
The X-raid Team endured mixed fortunes on the opening leg of the Silk Way Rally between Moscow and Lipetsk on Sunday. Poland’s Krzysztof Holowczyc and Belgian co-driver Jean-Marc Fortin finished the stage in second position in their BMW X3 CC and Russian team-mates Alexander Mironenko and Sergey Lebedev recorded the ninth fastest time in a second BMW X3CC.
Electrical problems troubled the MINI All4 Racing of the French duo of Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret and they finished the stage down in an unofficial 68th position. Heavy rain had soaked almost the entire 261km of the route of the day’s stage between Moscow and Lipetsk and muddy conditions prevailed.
Holowczyc finished the timed section 3 min 13 sec behind the winning Russian Aleksandre Zheludov. “It was incredibly slippery. We also had a puncture and had to stop twice to take the grass out of the radiator grille,” said the Pole.
For Mironenko, it was a good debut in the rally with the X-raid team. “It was downright slippery and again it was raining incredibly hard,” said the Russian. “Without the rain I’m sure I would have arrived two or three places further forward.”
Peterhansel was slowed around 40 kilometers after the start with electronic problems. The Frenchman had to stop twice and could not attack for the rest of the stage. He finished an unofficial 68th in the rankings.
“At the beginning it was very good, but we had to stop at kilometre 43,” said Peterhansel. “We tried to solve the problem. But eventually we had no alternative but to drive slowly to the finish. The stage itself was not easy, because the grip changed continuously.
“We still do not know exactly where the problem came from. We assume, however, a problem with the electronics. But it’s better for us to have those difficulties here and not on the Dakar,” admitted Monster Energy X-raid team boss Sven Quandt. “On the other hand, I must say that the Mini All4 Racing has never before driven in these conditions. Our vehicles have not been designed for this amount of mud.”
Monday will be the longest stage for the participants in the Silk Way Rally. The day starts with a liaison of 364km, before crews tackle 484km against the clock. A short 2km liaison takes teams to the bivouac. The start of the stage is believed to be over fast, wide tracks before the terrain becomes sandier with a few dunes.
