Karginov’s fourth consecutive victory and Karjakin's lag: how Russians fight for victory at Dakar

Trucks

The crew of the Russian KamAZ-master team, led by Andrei Kargin, continues to confidently lead the Dakar rally marathon, leaving no chance for rivals in the last four stages. He again showed the best time of the day, despite the fact that the 415-km-long Davasir – Harad route was especially difficult due to the large number of sections with hard surface.

The previous stage was marked by the fact that for the first time in the overall standings, Karginov’s advantage over Sergei Vyazovich’s third “MAZ” was more than an hour. On Tuesday, the Belarusian tried to approach the KAMAZ team, but he still lacked speed.

Karginov confidently overcame the ninth special stage, with each cutoff breaking away from Vyazovich for half a minute. At the finish, the Belarusian lost to the Russian 3 minutes 19 seconds. Czech Ales Loprais managed to take third place.

Other Russians this time failed to compete for a place in the top three: Dmitry Sotnikov took fifth place, and Anton Shibalov - seventh. In the general classification, Karginov is 38 minutes ahead of Shibalov, and Vyazovich is 1 hour and 8 minutes.

It is worth noting that last year's Dakar winner Eduard Nikolaev, whose time does not go to the overall standings due to the descent, showed the third time of the day, only 9 minutes 24 seconds behind the winner.

SUVs

After the not-so-successful eighth stage, in which the entire first three lost time, the struggle between Carlos Sainz, Sr., Stefan Petransel and Nasser Al-Attiyah, re-developed in the distance. The Frenchman took the lead after the second cut-off and did not miss him until the finish.

But the leader of the overall standings lowered the tire, and he lagged behind his competitors by more than 5 minutes while making a replacement, because of which he rolled back to fifth place. Petransel, on the other hand, gradually increased his advantage over Al-Attiyah, but in the final segment he unexpectedly almost lost him and in the end brought the opponent only 15 seconds. The third line was left by the local MINI pilot Yasser Seydan, and the fourth came by Jakub Przhgonski.

After the ninth stage, the Spaniard's six-minute advantage in the overall standings almost evaporated. Now he is only 24 seconds ahead of Al-Attiyah and 6 minutes 38 seconds ahead of Petransel. The Russians Alexander Dorosinsky and Denis Krotov, who took 12th and 18th places, respectively, in the general classification are behind the leader by more than 4 and 6.5 hours.

Unfortunately, the two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso could not please the Spanish fans, on the eve of the first time he went up to the Dakar podium. He crossed the finish line only ninth and remained 10th overall.

“Dakar” this year has so far managed to do without high-profile scandals, however, the situation may soon change. Toyota’s navigator, Konstantin Zhiltsov, spoke about the investigation launched by the judges. According to him, along with road maps received from the organizers, a number of riders use additional material to build routes, which is strictly prohibited by the regulations.

“There are no comments on Toyota, but in MINI someone pasted additional pieces of paper with courses and then threw them out the window, someone else did something ... I think that the showdown is still ahead, cameras still stand in the cars, and entries from them cause unhealthy interest among the organizers. It’s likely that the cameras are being crammed by other participants as well in order to understand how and what people use, ”wrote Residents on his Instagram page.

Another unpleasant episode that occurred at the eighth special stage, said the navigator of Seydan Alexei Kuzmich. Their crew confidently went to victory, but 50 km before the finish the car got stuck on a dune. Participants are not forbidden to assist colleagues from other teams, however, this remains at the discretion of the athletes.

According to Kuzmich, the Lithuanian MINI crew noticed comrades who were in trouble, but drove by.

“He went to us, saw us, I waved a cable to him. He stopped, looked - and went around. It seems like in the same team ... Is it really so difficult to spend 30 seconds, pull us once and go? I don’t understand it at all, ”complained the Russian.

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In justification, the navigator Saulius Jurgellenas said that it seemed to his crew that Seydan and Kuzmich warned of a dangerous dune, rather than asking for help.

ATVs

Russian Sergey Karjakin continues the struggle in the classification of all-terrain vehicles. On Monday, he managed to play almost 9 minutes behind the leader Casey Curry, but at the ninth special stage this figure increased again, although the Russian still ranks third in the general classification.

The main struggle unfolded between Curry and Blade Hildebrand, and the victory was reserved for the Red Bull Off-Road Team USA driver, whose time, however, is not taken into account. The Russian had the opportunity to get closer to the Americans, but in the end he came to the finish line only fourth with a 10-minute lag.

Earlier, Karjakin said that the team managed to eliminate the problem with power and CVT belts. In addition, he said that the technical commissioners discovered a violation on Curry’s car. The fact is that the wheels on its tires were of a larger diameter, and therefore the weight of the wheels was reduced. The Russian hopes that the leader of the race will be punished.

At the moment, Karjakin lags behind the first place in the general classification by 41 minutes 26 seconds. Another Russian, Ilya Rouss, takes 22nd place.

Motorcycles and ATVs

The eighth stage in the standings of motorcycles and ATVs was canceled in memory of the Portuguese rider Paulo Goncalves, who died on Sunday, so the participants had the opportunity to gain strength before a difficult day.

After the ninth special stage, the struggle for first place in the standings of motorcycles escalated. The first to come to the finish is Chilean Pablo Quintanilla, who goes in second place in the general classification. Now his lag behind the leader, American Ricky Brabek, is less than 21 minutes. Russian Dmitry Agoshkov is on the 64th line.

The stage was marked by an unusual episode. In the first half of the distance, camels appeared in the immediate vicinity of the route. The rally organizers had to resort to the help of helicopters in order to drive them away from the dangerous section. Fortunately, neither animals nor racers were injured.

In the classification of ATVs, the leader of the overall classification Chilean Ignacio Casale strengthened his position. Now he is 44 minutes ahead of the second Frenchman Simon Wits.