Ao conquistar a 3ª vitória em etapas no Rally Rota da Seda, o piloto oficial da Volkswagen Carlos Sainz, juntamente com seu co-piloto Lucas Cruz, assumiu a liderança do rally, estando assim em boa posição de garantir a sua quarta vitória em corridas de Todo-o-Terreno ao volante do Race Touareg. A dupla da Volkswagen Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk, que era líder até agora, sofreu um revés: Nesta etapa, que ligava Balkanabad a Turkmenbashi, o piloto despistou-se a alta velocidade e capotou várias vezes. Nem o piloto, nem o co-piloto sofreram qualquer lesão, mas o Race Touareg ficou muito danificado. Al-Attiyah e Gottschalk repararam o seu Touareg e continuaram lentamente até ao fim.
Os vencedores do "Dakar" Giniel de Villiers / Dirk von Zitzewitz garantiram o segundo lugar na etapa, que tinha um total de 417 quilómetros (345 quilómetros cronómetrados), na frente de Mark Miller / Ralph Pitchford e subiram para terceiro e segundo lugar, respectivamente. Como a última etapa no domingo - após uma reunião dos participantes com os presidentes da Rússia, Cazaquistão, Turquemenistão e Azerbeijão - apenas irá abranger 24 quilómetros da especial, Carlos Sainz e Lucas Cruz tem vitória praticamente em seu bolso. A sua vantagem sobre os seus companheiros de equipa é superior a 20 minutos.
Kris Nissen (Volkswagen Motorsport Director)
"We’ve put the largest part of the Silk Way Rally, which we can regard as a clear success, behind us. The decision to use this new event to prepare for the Dakar Rally was right. The competitive stress for the drivers, co-drivers and the squad cannot be realistically simulated during tests. However, the most important news of the day is that Nasser Al-Attiyah and Timo Gottschalk survived the roll-over unharmed. They’re now trying to reach the finish on their own power.”
#100 – Giniel de Villiers (ZA), 2nd place leg / 3rd place overall
"It was a good leg which closely resembled the Dakar Rally. It wasn’t just fast but also featured many tricky sections such as bumpy stretches. I enjoyed that. In the beginning we had a problem with inflation pressure on one of our tyres, so we stopped and added more air. Later, we caught up with Mark and Ralph and followed them – and took the same detour they did.”
#101 – Carlos Sainz (E), 1st place leg / 1st place overall
"At the beginning of the stage we took a detour which cost us about a minute. I then drove flat out to catch up with Nasser. At some point we caught up with him when he rolled over several times about one hundred metres in front of us. We stopped and saw that Nasser and Timo were okay. I feel sorry for them. However, the most important finding is still the fact that our cars functioned reliably and that our preparation for the ‘Dakar’ was successful.”
#103 – Mark Miller (USA), 3rd place leg / 2nd place leg
"For me, this has so far been the nicest leg of the rally; it offered a good mix of various types of terrain. Up to the first check point we were running well but then we missed a way point with Giniel and Dirk following us. When we saw Nasser and Timo after their accident we ran out of steam as well. It’s bitter to see team-mates retire so shortly before the finish –- it’s a pity for them and their crew.”
#104 – Nasser Al-Attiyah (Q) had not reached the finish at the time of this release.
Standings after Leg 08, Balkanabad (TM) – Turkmenbashi (TM)
345,00 km
Pos. Team Vehicle, Leg 08, Total time
1 Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (E/E), Volkswagen Race Touareg 2, 3h 24m 05s (1), 24h 12m 21s
2 Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA), Volkswagen Race Touareg 2, 3h 28m 50s (3), +21 m 52s
3 Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D), Volkswagen Race Touareg 2, 3h 28m 06s (2), +28 m 09s
4 Ruslan Misikov/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS/RUS), Nissan, 3h 59m 59s (6), +4h 44m 04s
5 Ilya Kuznetsov/ Andrey Neshin (RUS/RUS), Mitsubishi, 4h 03m 11s (7), +5h 23m 30s
6 Maris Saukans/Didzis Zarnis (LV/LV), OSC, 4h 10m 25s (9), +6h 06m 56s
7 Alexey Berkut/Konstantin Meshcheryakov (RUS/RUS), Mitsubishi, 3h 52m 27s (4), +6h
12m2 5s
8 Benediktas Vanagas/Saulius Jurgelenas (LT/LT), OSC, 4h 09m 26s (8), +6h 26m 11s
9 Raz Heymann/Hillel Segal (ISR/ISR), Mitsubishi, 4h 23m 15s (12), +8h 17m 35s
10 Bodgan Novytskyi/Iurii Kondratiiev (UKR/UKR), Mitsubishi, 5h 01m 28s (14), +10h 20m 01s
Coming up next…
The participants of the Silk Way Rally will experience a special conclusion of the event: The minister presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan will send the cars and trucks off to the ninth and final leg to Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. Besides a 13-kilometre liaison stage to the start and 580 kilometres after the finish the co-drivers’ road-book only shows a 24-kilometre special stage in the Karakuma desert.
