Russia rules Dakar

A Russian Kamaz entry is currently leading the truck class in the 2014 Dakar Rally, with Andrey Karginov nearly eight minutes clear with two stages remaining

At the end of Stage 11 of the 2014 Dakar Rally it’s a Russian Kamaz entry ruling the truck class, with the two Andreys (driver Andrey Karginov and co-driver Andrey Mokeev, assisted by mechanic Igor Devyatkin) pushing the #501 truck to a stage win and an overall lead of 7min 56sec.

Stage 11 saw competitors take on a vast expanse of the Atacama Desert as they make their way from Antofagasta, on Chile’s Pacific coast, to the town of El Salvador, to the south-east. A 605km special stage took in majestic dunes, rugged desert tracks, and flat-open sections of open terrain, and was complemented by a further 144km in liaison stages.

Another Russian Kamaz entry (#500 – Eduard Nikolaev, Evgeny Yakovlev, and Vladimir Rybakov) finished the stage in second, 14min 18sec behind Karginov, while Dutchman Gerard de Rooy, assisted by co-driver Tom Colsoul and mechanic Darek Rodewald, rounded out the stage podium in their Torpedo Iveco (#501).

The stage results take Karginov’s Kamaz team to a slender overall lead of just under eight minutes from de Rooy’s Iveco, which is roughly an hour and a half ahead of Nikolaev’s Kamaz in third.

In the other classes, Spain’s Marc Coma leads the bikes on his KTM, Chile’s Ignacio Casale leads the quads on a Yamaha Raptor, and Spain’s Nani Roma with Frenchman Michel Perin lead the cars in their Mini.

The field now turns its attention to Stage 12, the penultimate day yet another sandy affair that stretches from the town of El Salvador to the port of La Serena to the south. A special stage of 350km culminates with more towering dunes, along with liaison sections totalling 349km.

In all the truck class of the 2014 Dakar Rally takes in 13 stages and over 9000km before its culmination in the southern Chilean city of Valparaiso.

For more information on the 2014 Dakar Rally visit www.dakar.com

Russia rules Dakar

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