Silk Way Rally Day 5
Silk Way Rally, Leg 5. The “Dakar” winning duo Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D) won the fifth stage of the Silk Way Rally through Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and thus reduced its gap in the overall standings. On the total of 480 kilometres through Kazahkstan from Beyneu to Janaozen it defeated its team-mates Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk (Q/D) by a razor-thin lead of seven seconds. Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA) and Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (E/E) finished with respective gaps of 2m 57s and 4m 13s. The second-longest leg again featured high-speed driving across largely flat steppe terrain and confronted the co-drivers with the tough challenge of hard-to-detect trails. The order of the top four overall positions remains unchanged halfway through the Silk Way Rally: Al-Attiyah/Gottschalk extended their lead over Sainz/Cruz, while Miller/Pitchford and de Villiers/von Zitzewitz moved closer together again.
#100 – Giniel de Villiers (ZA), 1st place leg / 4th place overall “I’m very happy with the stage win. The changes we made to the suspension set-up of the Race Touareg were clearly noticeable and my teamwork with Dirk in the cockpit is perfect as well. We’ve found our rhythm. Other than that, driving as fast as we could was what counted again today.”
#101 – Carlos Sainz (E), 4th place leg / 2nd place overall “The leg was largely flat and fast but also included a stony and twisty section towards the middle. Navigating was difficult, so we met our team colleagues again in between. After passing Nasser, we missed another branch-off and lost some time.”
#103 – Mark Miller (USA), 3rd place leg / 3rd place overall “The narrow outcome shows that all four Volkswagen teams again tried to give their very best. The fact that all of us got off the track more or less at the same places could not be attributed to our four co-drivers – the road-book just wasn’t perfect.”
#104 – Nasser Al-Attiyah (Q), 2nd place leg / 1st place overall “It was an interesting day. I caught Mark, hit a rock and had to stop for a tyre change. After that I attacked to make up the time again. When Mark and Carlos missed a branch-off, we were able to pass. Second place is an optimal result for Timo and me as we don’t half to open the course tomorrow.”
Interim standings after leg 05, Beyneu (KZ) – Janaozen (KZ) 424.71 km/480,04 km SS 06/total
- 1 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk (Q/D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 3h 41m 44s (2) 12h 13m 44s
- 2 Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (E/E) Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 3h 45m 50s (4) +6m 09s
- 3 Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA) Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 3h 44m 34s (3) +11m 23s
- 4 Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 3h 41m 37s (1) +11m 50s
- 5 Matthias Kahle/Thomas Schünemann (D/D) Honda 4h 23m 59s (6) +1h 56m 58s
- 6 Alexey Berkut/Konstantin Meshcheryakov (RUS/RUS) Mitsubishi 4h 31m 36s (9) +2h 18m 10s
- 7 Bernard Errandonea/Jean-Pierre Garcin (F/F) SMG 4h 19m 25s (5) +2h 23m 24s
- 8 Ruslan Misikov/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS/RUS) Nissan 4h 26m 34s (8) +2h 30m 35s
- 9 Maris Saukans/Didzis Zarnis (LV/LV) OSC 4h 32m 08s (10) +2h 42m 21s
- 10 Ilya Kuznetsov/ Andrey Neshin (RUS/RUS) Mitsubishi 4h 32m 42s (11) +2h 43m 44s
Coming up next… At the end of the sixth leg across 698 kilometres from Janaozen (Kazakhstan) to Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan) the Volkswagen drivers will reach the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest lake. Before the contenders arrive in the port city they have to complete a special stage of 514 kilometres featuring a tricky mix of varying terrain – such as rocky mountain paths, extremely dusty trails, soft dunes, small canyons and dry lakes.
For the race reports of the first days visit the Silk Way Rally @ Puro Off-Road Rally Raid section
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