News

Eduard Nikolaev strengthened his leadership in the truck category of Dakar.

14.01.2017

13 January, Rio Cuarto

Already yesterday on the bivouac in San Juan, arriving at South America Russian fans started to congratulate KAMAZ-master with their success in the race.

 “It is early. You will congratulate us if we stand on the podium in Buenos Aires on 14 January”,- wisely noticed the veteran of the team Aidar Belyaev. And that is true. Dakar has always been a competition till the very last meter. Today’s special San Juan-Rio Quarto has boosted confidence, that the main trophey of the rally will go to Russia. KAMAZ-master crews successfully finished the 288-km SS. However, the first part of the SS with 50 km of dunes had raised fears. Fortunately, not a single KAMAZ crew had problems as on this section, so on the rest kilometers of the special. Eduard Nikolaev showed the best time today increasing his lead for 14 minutes of the main rival Gerard De Rooy.  Only the Argentinian Federico Villagra could wedge himself during the stage in the Russian trio - Nikolaev, Mardeev Sotnikov. Villagra on his Iveco  showed the second best time today, the gap with the leader Nikolaev was 52 seconds. Anton Shibalov had to stop on the track in order to help Ravil Maganov (No 378), whose gearbox broke down, and towed him to the bivouac.

 Quotations

Eduard Nikolaev, pilot of crew No 505

Today’s stage was divided into two special sections - 113 and 175 km long. Between them lied a very long neutralization zone (300 km), where you could think everything over and get your breath to perform well on the second part. The first part of the route looked like Astrakhan - sand tracks with hills, holes. The second part of the special raised us to the mountains with fast curvy roads.  A lot of stones were on each side. It was important to avoid them. Then there were roads across grape fields. Quads detained a bit there, and last cars raised much dust. But we did it. Performed well.

 Eugeny Yakovlev, co-pilot crew No505

Words of the team management help to face with psychological pressing. Vladimir Chagin finds correct words and always helps to set our mind on a stage. The whole tomorrow’s stage is ahead, and you mustn’t relax till the last kilometer.

 Dmitry Sotnikov, pilot of crew No 513

Frankly speaking, may be due to recent years, as the whole current Dakar, so today’s stage, especially its first part, were underestimated. It wasn’t easier than stages last days. There were rough sand hills at the start of the first section. It was hot, both literally and figuratively, we drank much water. We cut our wheel, thought that we would keep it till the neutralization zone, but we had to stop and change it. Fortunately, Airat Mardeev was going behind. We could do it in 6 min together. So, the day was quite difficult. It seemed that everything had been settled, but the fight was still hard. Today attacks were from the Argentinean Villagra, and he is familiar with local places.

 Dakar-2017. Truck Category. Results of the 11th Stage. 

 

Pos. Nom Temps écart

1

505 03:56:47 -

2

502 03:57:39 00:00:52

3

501 04:06:40 00:09:53

4

513 04:08:41 00:11:54

5

500 04:11:28 00:14:41

6

507 04:14:27 00:17:40

7

503 04:16:51 00:20:04

8

525 04:19:30 00:22:43

9

518 04:22:45 00:25:58

10

522 04:25:36 00:28:49

11

504 04:33:11 00:36:24

12

520 04:42:07 00:45:20

13

508 04:48:44 00:51:57

14

516 04:53:34 00:56:47

15

521 04:53:55 00:57:08

16

533 05:23:12 01:26:25

17

512 05:25:13 01:28:26

18

511 05:28:44 01:31:57

19

538 05:39:54 01:43:07

20

529 05:41:55 01:45:08

21

514 05:59:29 02:02:42

22

536 06:11:18 02:14:31

23

541 06:22:13 02:25:26

24

527 06:22:22 02:25:35

25

543 06:33:51 02:37:04

26

539 06:52:33 02:55:46

27

528 06:58:13 03:01:26

28

509 07:03:58 03:07:11

 

Dakar-2017. Truck Category. General Classification after the 11th stage 

 

Pos. Nom Temps écart

1

505 27:23:59 -

2

513 27:41:08 00:17:09

3

500 28:02:57 00:38:58

4

502 28:22:38 00:58:39

5

501 29:50:16 02:26:17

6

522 29:56:19 02:32:20

7

503 30:27:40 03:03:41

8

516 30:35:43 03:11:44

9

504 31:06:05 03:42:06

10

518 31:16:36 03:52:37

11

509 32:18:13 04:54:14

12

521 32:27:53 05:03:54

13

511 32:33:36 05:09:37

14

520 33:28:33 06:04:34

15

508 34:01:11 06:37:12

16

507 34:19:20 06:55:21

17

525 35:41:07 08:17:08

18

536 36:18:20 08:54:21

19

533 39:08:34 11:44:35

20

541 41:41:21 14:17:22

21

527 42:39:48 15:15:49

22

538 42:57:49 15:33:50

23

539 43:35:25 16:11:26

24

512 47:07:21 19:43:22

25

514 50:09:45 22:45:46

26

529 50:23:26 22:59:27

27

528 55:24:59 28:01:00

28

543 64:57:49 37:33:50