The Silk Road Rally entered the second stage. The drivers of the three groups bid farewell to Baikalsk and headed east to Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia, Russian Federation. Ulan-Ude is not only the political, economic and cultural center of the Republic of Buryatia, but also the third largest city in Eastern Siberia. Today’s second stage has a total distance of 413.72 kilometers, including 207.67 kilometers of special stages. The drivers faced varied terrain in the second stage: mountains, coniferous forests and bridges. After the opening warm-up stage, the drivers are all ready to go, hoping to occupy a dominant position in the standings through the performance of the second stage. To achieve good results in such a stage, direction, rhythm and speed are indispensable.
In the car group that received the most attention, Al Attia ran smoothly in this stage. He led all the way from WP2, and once again maintained his lead until the end. In the end, he won the stage championship with an advantage of 7 minutes and 40 seconds. This was his second stage championship in the 2019 Silk Road Rally, and he also extended his lead in the overall score list to 13 minutes and 54 seconds. second. The Qatari said after the game: “Today’s stage is very difficult. The stage of more than 200 kilometers needs to cross forests and rivers. In addition, today’s gravel road is very bumpy. I don’t know what happened to Alaghi’s car. , I went relatively smoothly today. I will continue to work hard tomorrow, hoping to continue to maintain my advantage.”
As for Chinese drivers, Liu Kun and Han Wei performed well today. They finished the race with an interval of 2 minutes and 34 seconds, ranking second and third in the stage. After the race, both Chinese drivers mentioned the difficulty of the stage and the problems of other drivers’ vehicle failures. In addition, Han Wei also said: “We could have driven faster, but because today’s track is very bumpy, we also saw that many vehicles broke down during the stage. Considering that today is the second stage of the race, we decided to Focus on stability, my car is in good condition, and it matches well with Navigator, I hope I can continue to perform stably tomorrow.”
In terms of the overall standings, after fierce competition in the second stage, Attiya, the champion of the double stage, ranked first in the overall standings, Liu Kun’s overall score rose to the second place, and the French driver Pai Richet came out on top. Ranked third.
In the motorcycle group, the competition in the second stage was more intense, and the time gap between the top five riders was only 2 minutes and 40 seconds. The British driver Sam Sunderland, who won the Dubai Grand Prix and the 2017 Dakar Rally champion, ranked today’s stage champion with his stable performance, followed by the HERO 450 rally team in second and third Miner and Paul Goncalves. The Spanish driver Lea Sanz performed steadily in the second stage and won the tenth stage, ranking 11th in the overall score list.
In the truck category, Manz Racing driver Viazovic continued his excellent performance in the first stage and won the championship of the second stage. Kakinov, who drove the No. 300 Kamaz truck, won the second place in the stage with a gap of 3 and a half minutes. In addition, the Dutch driver van den Breck driving Renault Trucks won the third stage.
Tomorrow’s stage
Distance: 691.35 km
Special stage: 243.00 km
95% gravel, 5% gravel
The mountain road from Buryatia to Mongolia hides many navigation pitfalls. Racing needs to climb up and down the mountain, tracking the footprints of animals. There are treacherous ravines here, but they also offer rich and varied terrain. Definitely a challenge to navigate: dozens of roads criss-cross and even parallel roads.
Halfway through the route, the altitude will rise to 1,000 meters, and there will be forest and hilly sections in front of the riders. After the 150-kilometer section, a beautiful river will appear in the field of vision. Of course, the drivers can’t be too intoxicated in the beautiful scenery. A creek bed can pose no small risk. The line continues to climb, and the riders will have the opportunity to see beautiful scenery at an altitude of 1500 meters, which is also an excellent location for shooting. The next special stage will continue on the plateau on the parallel road.
