At the start of «Dakar» came 354 Crew: 110 SUVs, 55 trucks, 143 motorcycles, 46 quads from 60 countries. Participants made a loop on the South American continent, should finish in Argentina Rosario, breaking the more than 9,000 km, of which 5,000 will be in the special stages.
First in the direction of Rosario (first Dakar bivouac) moved kvadrotsiklisty and motorcyclists. Behind them — jeeps and finally the trucks, the first of which was the start of «KAMAZ» winner of «Dakar-2015» Ayrat Mardeeva (№500).
Unfortunately, at the beginning of the rally-marathon was a tragedy. Jeep Chinese racer Guo Meiling (№360) on the sixth kilometer SU lost control on a turn and crashed into spectators standing along the route. The organizers of the race involved 4 helicopter medical teams to provide emergency assistance to the victims and ten to deliver them to the hospital. Because of the incident, the prologue of the race was canceled.
Race director Etienne Lavigne confirmed the cancellation of the first stage: heavy rains washed away the track.
Was planned for January 4, special stage length of 510 kilometers on the route from Villa Carlos Paz to Termas de Rio Hondo was supposed to be the longest in the program of the rally this year, but it is reduced: motorcycles and quads will have to overcome 354 km SU, cars and truck — 386 km
At the first check point standings lead cargo grabs Dakar winner, Hans Stacey 2007 (his tenth anniversary «Dakar»).
This year, a cousin of Gerard de Rooy not driving Iveco, MAN and cab command Peter Versluisa. But at De Roy completion: Czech Ales Loprais and Argentine Federico Villagra (on the «Dakar-2015» in the jeep Ford Ranger he came twelfth, the year before the 27th driving a Mini with team X-Raid, but he is very strong on fast special stages, because it has experience in classic rally championship).
Here it is, the main intrigue of the current «Dakar»: the sands along the route 2016 there is little, with Federico companions on classical rally — the potential contenders for the podium. This is indicated by the fact that Argentinian newcomer in the class T4, several times overtook Hans Stacey during the stage.
As for the crews of «KAMAZ-master», they launched the «Dakar» with great caution. Ayrat Mardeev, Eduard Nikolaev, Andrey and Dmitry Sotnikov Karginov finished expressway stage on 8, 9, 10 and 13th positions respectively.
Crew Ayrat Mardeeva, clears the way for the trucks because as the winner of «Dakar-2015» started first arrived at the bivouac with a broken windshield, the cause — spreading crown wayside tree.
Renault was burned to the ground. The crew, fortunately, was not injured. But Van Den Brink — one of the real contenders for the podium — was out of control. Dmitry Sotnikov, vystupivshiyv bomberos roles (firefighter, App.), Said that «at the rear of the machine flared strong flame. People could be seen, and we were afraid that they were still in the car, rushed to extinguish. Fortunately, the crew was not injured. But the car could not be saved. Existing staff of fire extinguishers two crews was not enough to stop the fire. » On the road in front of a bunch of burned bivouac and a jeep one of the teams.
In the car class sensation stage was the result of crew Vladimir Vasiliev and Konstantin Zhiltsov (they act on Toyota, prepared by the Belgian team Overdrive). The Russians have conceded only 2 minutes 38 seconds of the leader of the standings debutant «Dakar»Sebastian Loeb, nine time world champion on classical rally. The second result is the Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel (00: 02: 23).
Another Russian — speaking on ATV Sergey Karjakin today was sixteen (00: 16: 26). There is a reason: in the closed turns Sergei slid off the road, moving away from a collision with two other kvadrotsiklisty. In the tall grass turned stone Karjakin overturned, but escaped with only scratches and cracked water tank, which he repaired at the bivouac «KAMAZ-master».
Photo: Press-service of the team «KAMAZ-master», dakar.com.
