LEADERS AGAINST ALL ODDS

KAMAZ-master's Press Attaché Eric Khayrullin is reporting from Arequipa (Peru),

"The morning of January 10 has started with worrying news. In about half an hour after the trucks had started at the 268th kilometer of the special from San Juan de Marcona to Arequipa, the organizers informed that Eduard Nikolaev's crew fell on its side in the sands. Fortunately, already five minutes later it became known that Nikolaev had run on!

The Peruvian dunes are cruel to the racers of the 40th Dakar. Having started from Lima, Ton Genugten's, Ayrat Mardeev's and Dmitry Sotnikov's trucks fell on a side. Yesterday, Ales Loprais overturned his truck hurrying to the start after a stop because of engine problems. As a result, the Czech withdrew from the race having made, thus, a dubious "gift" for his birthday. Dutchman Martin van den Brink, initially considered to be a contender for the podium in the truck category, also went to the start line after problems (a fatal breakage of the front suspension) at the fourth stage.  

The bivouac in Arequipa is usually fortunate for the KAMAZ-master team. In 2012, Andrey Karginov won his first Dakar stage victory on the way to this city known as the southern capital of Peru. In 2013, the same result was achieved by Ayrat Mardeev.

The local absolutely wild and lifeless terrain with Martian landscapes has brought luck to the KAMAZ pilots for the third time. Despite a failure at the beginning of the stage, Eduard Nikolaev's crew not just reached the finish line, but was the first to do it! But, crucially, today Eduard has managed to enlarge a gap from his nearest chaser in the general ranking Argentinian Federico Villagra by 21 minutes more, and now the IVECO racer is lagging behind the Russian by 58 minutes.

It's a pity that Russian Sergei Kariakin withdrew from the race. Last year's Dakar quad champion has broken his arm today. The day before, another Russian stopped competing: Kaliningrad's Ivan Shikhotarov was sent home with a vertebral compression fracture.

Eduard Nikolaev, Pilot of Crew 500, "A difficult day. A special packed with treacherous dunes. And they are not so big, but more like in Mauritania and very soft. We were the first to start. Argentinian Villagra started next after us. I couldn't conquer one dune at once. I started to backed out. There was a ledge, and our wheel fell into it. The vehicle fell. I woldn't even say that we fell on a side. It was just the corner of the roof we fell on. Of course, we weren't able to ran out ourselves then. But almost immediately Kolomy arrived and blinked to show that he was ready to help. I'm very thankful to him, because we would have been waiting for our guys running behind much longer. Martin put us on the wheels very quickly. We lost about 17 minutes for this. Later I tried to win them back. Finally, I managed even to win the stage and at the end of the day increase a gap from Federico Villagra in the general classification."

Ayrat Mardeev, Pilot of Crew 507, "In a very narrow canyon, after running in it for a while, we saw a vehicle laying on its side across the road. Like it or not, you must turn it over. Besides, we saw gasoline leaking from the tank, and the engine, the exhaust system and the brakes were hot. We tried to lift it manually, because it was impossible to drive to it in the truck. Seven together, we lifted it. We lost about 29 minutes for this. We hope that the organizers will return us the time we spent to help this vehicle."

Dmitry Sotnikov, Pilot of Crew 502, "An early start. Only 4 hours of sleep. The beginning wasn't easy. The dunes were soft and crooked. We tried to run smoothly. Then we tried to gain speed. We saw Loeb. Many cars got stuck. Navigation was rather difficult. Everything was fine, but Dutchman Tom Coronel's vehicle turned over in a gorge. The vehicles piled in a long line, so it was impossible to run. Many trucks stood idle. This was the second special, about 130 km after the start. We lost about 15 minutes there."

Anton Shibalov, Pilot of Crew 515, "We hadn't traveled far away from the start when we saw Sebastien Loeb's car standing in a deep sand dune. He asked us to help. He was in a dark place. We pulled him out. We ran on, but, unfortunately, we sat on top of a dune ourselves. We were digging for a long time. Half an hour was lost. We moved a whole mountain of sand, I think, but slow sports six-wheelers approached us, and one of them helped us out."

Today, on Thursday, January 11, the Dakar racers will pass Stage 6 (Arequipa – La Paz) 758 km long, including 313 km of special. The Dakar leaves Peru and the desert to take on the mountains. The organizers warn, "The route become faster, barely leaving enough time for a peek at the many lakes along the way. The second timed section will start on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The Bolivian Altiplano requires competitors and crews to adjust to racing at an altitude of 2,500 metres. The day off in the capital will help them acclimatise." Good luck to our racers!"

Dakar-2018. Truck Category. Results of Stage 5

Dakar-2018. Truck Category.  General Classification after Stage 5