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MAZ-SPORTauto crew third at Silk Way Stage 3

MINSK, 9 July (BelTA) - MAZ-SPORTauto crew piloted by Sergei Vyazovich placed third at Stage 3 of the Silk Way Rally through Russia, Mongolia and China, BelTA learned from the MAZ press service.

The participants overcame a 360km road section, crossed the Russian-Mongolian border. The terrain was a big contrast. After lakes and forested sections of Eastern Siberia, Stage 3 was a classic steppe.

Sergei Vyazovich’s crew came in third, still leading overall. A KAMAZ-Master crew piloted by Andrei Karginov was first and his teammate Anton Shibalov was second.

“The Special was good today. We drove very quickly. The average speed was high. But the start was not a good one. We were the first to start the race and the tracks from the cars were not easy to see and we made some navigational errors and thus lost a couple of minutes,” leader of MAZ-SPORTauto Team Sergei Vyazovich said. He also noted that there were some problems with the truck. Therefore they had to drive slower.

On 10 July the rally takes a 470km circle route around Ulaanbaatar, with start and finish points just two kilometers away from the bivouac.

As it was reported earlier,  MAZ-SPORTauto Team set off for the Silk Way Rally across Russia, Mongolia and China in late June. MAZ sport trucks took part in a road show across Russian cities. The race started in Russia's Irkutsk on 6 July and will finish in China’s Dunhuang in 10 days. The race will feature timed sections in Eastern Siberia,  Mongolian steppes, Chinese plains and also sand sections with dunes of the Gobi desert. The route exceeds 5,000km, half of which will be special stages.

Belarus has fielded three crews. The race will be a test and evaluation master plan for the Belarusian team ahead of Dakar Rally Raid. The crews will hone their skills, trial the trucks and test many know-hows.

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