Ilgizar Mardeev’s son Ayrat (Kamaz) was the nice surprise of today’s stage. He took his first stage win in a big international competition, beating his teammate, “mentor” and fellow Russian Firdaus Kabirov (Kamaz).
The 3rd best time in today’s stage was posted by Dutchman Hans Stacey (Iveco), 10:28 back. Ales Loprais (Tatra) had the most disappointing performance of the 3rd stage. After leading the special with a margin of over 7 minutes at CP2, the Czech made a big navigational mistake towards the end of the stage, which ended up costing him more than 25 minutes.
Of course, the 2009 champion still leads the general classification, but his margin has now increased to 41:31 minutes over his teammate and fellow Russian Andrey Karginov (Kamaz), and 58:59 mins over Dutchman Hans Stacey (Iveco). Ales Loprais was the big loser of the day and now lies 01:02:37 back from the leader of the race.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), crews will tackle a 400km loop stage around Astrakhan. Fast tracks will again be part and parcel of the special, which also includes 45km in sand dunes and a return to faster tracks for the final 60 kilometers.
Silk Way Rally RESULTS: Stage 3 Volgograd-Astrakhan Trucks Top 10 Day/All
Top 10 Trucks Stage results S03 Volgograd-Astrakhan
01) Mardeev Jr./Belyaev/Mirniy (RUS) I Kamaz I 05:51:15 I 00:00:00
02) Kabirov/Mokeev/Tanin (RUS) I Kamaz I 05:57:29 I 00:06:14
03) Stacey/Willemsen/Kinderen (NL) I De Rooy Iveco I 06:01:43 I 00:10:28
04) Karginov/Mizyukaev/Devyatkin (RUS) I Kamaz I 06:03:50 I 00:12:35
05) Maardev/Sotnikov/Yakovlev (RUS) I Kamaz I 06:08:29 I 00:17:14
06) Echter/Ruf/Echter (D) I MAN TGS I 06:09:45 I 00:18:30
07) Loprais/Holan/Stajf (CZ) I Tatra Proto I 06:16:41 I 00:25:26
08) Van Ginkel/Wams/Van Veenendaal (NL) I GINAF I 06:21:36 I 00:30:21
09) Adua/Marco/Busoms (F/E) I De Rooy Iveco I 06:22:52 I 00:31:37
10) Elfrink/Hortulanus (NL) I Mercedes Axor I 06:32:53 I 00:41:38
Top 10 Trucks Overall results after SS03 Volgograd-Astrakhan
01) Kabirov/Mokeev/Tanin (RUS) I Kamaz I 15:45:45 I 00:00:00
02) Karginov/Mizyukaev/Devyatkin (RUS) I Kamaz I 16:27:16 I 00:41:31
03) Stacey/Willemsen/Kinderen (NL) I De Rooy Iveco I 16:44:44 I 00:58:59
04) Loprais/Holan/Stajf (CZ) I Tatra Proto I 16:48:22 I 01:02:37
05) Versluis/Bruynkens/Schuurmans (NL) I MAN TGA I 17:27:18 I 01:41:33
06) Van Ginkel/Wams/Van Veenendaal (NL) I GINAF I 17:28:19 I 01:42:34
07) Echter/Ruf/Echter (D) I MAN TGS I 17:48:18 I 02:02:33
08) Mardeev Jr./Belyaev/Mirniy (RUS) I Kamaz I 18:07:36 I 02:21:51
09) Elfrink/Hortulanus (NL) I Mercedes Axor I 18:13:37 I 02:27:52
10) Rotsaert/Dendooven/Debuf (B) I MAN TGA I 18:19:59 I 02:34:14