Press releases

MINSK, 14 January (BelTA) – Belarus’ MAZ-SPORTavto crew led by Alexander Vasilevsky finished the tenth leg of the 2016 Dakar Rally in eighth position, BelTA learned from Alfa Bank (Belarus), a partner of Belarus’ team.

The tenth stage through the Fiambala dunes challenged racers with difficult sandy terrain. Dutchman Pascal de Baar (Renault) took the stage win. Even two Russia’s KAMAZ crews faced problems and finished in the second half of the standings more than three hours behind Pascal de Baar.

Alexander Vasilevsky had a good stage as sandy terrain is his strong point. The crew cleared the stage in some 5h44m to pick up the eighth position losing 52 minutes to the stage winner. Alexander Vasilevsky moved up to 19th overall. Now he is 7h19m behind overall leader Gerard de Rooy.

“The tenth stage turned out to be exceptionally difficult, both is terms of the road surface and navigation. There were no speedy sections, only rocky and sandy terrain. Many trucks got lost and spent a lot of time trying to get back on the right route. We were running relatively smoothly, the trucks did not let us down,” the team said.

The maintenance crew led by Vladimir Vasilevsky crossed the finish line in 20th position clocking 7h16m, 2h24m behind Pascal de Baar. The results put them in 26th overall.

The 2016 Dakar Rally is running across the mountains and deserts of Argentina and Bolivia. It kicked off on 3 January and will finish on 16 January.