The fifth stage of the 2019 Silk Road Rally went all the way south from Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, to the Mandalay Gobi. The total length of the stages is 364.59 kilometers, including 337 kilometers of special stages. This stage is a typical Mongolian style, including mountain roads, grasslands, cross-country roads and parallel roads and other terrains. The judgment of piloting is also particularly high. There must be no slack in navigation, otherwise it may cause huge time loss. This stage also passes through tourist areas, monuments and caves. After a high-speed stage, the drivers followed the track into the mountains and competed on a plateau at an altitude of 1,600 meters.
In the car group, the famous Qatari driver Attia once again showed his extraordinary stability and speed, leading the French driver Mathieu by 3 minutes and 7 seconds, winning the Silk Road Rally stage championship for the fifth time in a row . Since the opening of the 9th Silk Road Rally, he has firmly occupied the stage championship and the top of the standings, showing his confidence in the inevitable championship of this year’s car group. The Dutch driver Van Luen, who was the dark horse in the fourth stage, continued his excellent performance today and finished the race in third place in the car group. After the race, Attia said: “Today’s track is fast, the scenery is beautiful, and navigation is relatively difficult. We completed it smoothly. There are a lot of gravel on the track, but we did not encounter any tire puncture problems, and the running was relatively good. It went well, of course my pilot Matthew contributed a lot.”
As for Chinese drivers, although they did not enter the top three, their overall performance is still very stable. Zhang Ming from Shaanxi Yunxiang Racing Team ranked among the top 5 (fifth), Liu Kun (seventh), Sun Ping (eighth), Han Wei (ninth) and Zi Yungang (tenth) entered the top ten.
After the end of the fifth stage, in terms of the total score of the car group, Attia firmly occupied the first place in the standings with an advantage of 37 minutes and 25 seconds. Chinese driver Liu Kun and French driver Pachelet ranked second and third in the overall standings due to their stable performance in the first five stages. It is worth mentioning that the overall performance of the Chinese drivers is excellent. In addition to Liu Kun who is ranked second, Han Wei, Zi Yungang, Zhang Ming, Sun Ping, Chen Feng and Zi Rong temporarily occupy the fifth to tenth places in the overall standings , showing the great potential of Chinese drivers in international competitions.
The motorcycle group ended the second marathon stage today. After the race, all the motorcycles drove into the camp for inspection to ensure that the engine and other important parts were sealed intact. In today’s game, the famous British player Sam Sunderland pursued the victory and led Kevin Benavidez by 1 minute and 33 seconds to win the stage again. The dark horse of this stage is the Portuguese driver Gancaves, who only finished third in the stage with a gap of 2 minutes and 47 seconds. Currently in the motorcycle class, Sam Sunderland leads the championship with 13 minutes and 44 seconds, followed by the Benavides brothers from Argentina, Luciano Benavides In second place was Kevin Benavidez in third.
In the truck group, the championship battle of the fifth stage was launched in the Kamaz team. The Kamaz driver Kakinov, who won the championship in the SS3 stage, led his teammate Sparov by 4 minutes and 18 seconds and ranked first in this stage. In the SS4 stage, the driver of the Manzi team, Viazovic, who won the championship, ranked third. After finishing the 5 special stages, in the overall score list of the truck group, Viazovich of the Manz team temporarily ranked first in the truck group with an advantage of 16 minutes and 4 seconds due to his stable performance. The two drivers of Maz Racing, Sbarov and Kakinov, ranked second and third in the overall score list, ready to attack the championship at any time.
Tomorrow’s stage
Distance: 411.75 km
Special stage: 408.17 km
75% gravel; 25% gravel
Stage 6: Follow the road book closely and navigate correctly
This stage will start in the wide grassland. The main task of each team is to keep up with the road book driving. In the picturesque scenery, it is often necessary to adjust the driving direction, and today’s stage will certainly not let you get bored. Follow the various waypoints marked in the road book, and they will bring you back to the finish line successfully.
