Ales Loprais Wins the Silk Way Rally in Corrected Rankings!

Stage 6 of the Silk Way Rally brought only few changes on the track but big ones afterwards. Stage 7 is canceled and therefore the results are final, and after a time penalty on Kabirov Ales Loprais gets to the first place!

The crew of InstaForex Loprais Team started the special as the third truck and left notning to chance. Gradually, Ales Loprais passed Kabirov and Echter but the next course brought mild technical problems with the central inflation system. The problem was fixed in the transfer section to the day's second special.

"Today I really enjoyed the stage, quite an interesting one. After passing Kabirov and Echter we discovered a problem in the central inflation system. Milan Holan, my mechanic, had to block the whole system and we continued with a critically low tire pressure as punctures were threatening or we could destruct the whole tire. Then we focused on maintaining our second place," Ales Loprais said.

However, still there was a chance. The leader of the GC, Kabirov, stopped to help the stuck BMW of Alexander Mironenko from the ravine, although the Russian car driver could have been helped by any of Kabirov's teammates. The young Kamaz drivers were pushing hard, though. Ayrat Mardeev won the stage, his second this year and managed to claim fifth overall to Echter who lost it only by 43 seconds. Karginov placed third but took only 4 minutes off Ales' margin. A good performance was achieved by both Liaz trucks of KM Racing, with 4th and 8th places. On the other hand, the race is over for Elfrink after a crash and a solid drive of Versluis also got to a premature end due to broken gearbox.

The Bonver Dakar Team maintained its steady pace in its first rally, placing 24th in stage and 19th overall.