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MAZ-SPORTavto comes seventh in third leg of Dakar 2016
MINSK, 6 January (BelTA) – Despite the heavy storms and downpours, the organizers of the Dakar Rally 2016 let the racers to finish Stage 3. Belarus’ MAZ-SPORTavto crew led by pilot Sergei Vyazovich finished the third leg of the rally in 7th in the truck category, BelTA learned from a partner of the Belarusian team.
Climate conditions continued to ravage race organizer’s plans as the rain turned parts of the special into torrents of water. Even Russia’s KAMAZ-master team, many-time winners of the Dakar truck race, experienced difficulties. Belarus’ MAZ-SPORTavto crews had more luck as they travelled slowly and carefully through the potentially dangerous parts of the stage.
“All the three Belarusian trucks had a good stage with no serious problems. The track was extremely slippery, and much depended on the skills of the drivers and the luck factor. We decided to go pretty fast but be very careful, and the strategy paid off,” the team explained.
Sergei Vyazovich’s crew covered the stage in 1h46m, 3m35s behind Czech Republic’s Martin Kolomy who notched up the fastest time. The Belarusians are currently in eleventh overall place losing almost 20 minutes to truck race leader Dutchman Hans Stacey.
The crew of Alexander Vasilevsky finished Dakar Stage 3 in 24th clocking 1h58m, some 15m27s off Martin Kolomy. Now they place 22nd in the overall standings.
MAZ’s third entry, the maintenance crew of Vladimir Vasilevsky, finished the stage in 29th. They cleared the stage in 2h3m losing 20m28s to the stage winner and are now sitting 31st in the overall standings.
The 2016 Dakar Rally is running across the mountains and deserts of Argentina and Bolivia. The race kicked off on 3 January and will finish on 16 January.
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