Silk Way Rally – Cyril Despres gets closer to final victory

Between Alxa Youqi and Zhongwei, Stephane Peterhansel achieved another prestigious success on the Silk Way Rally, for the penultimate day of the rally-raid disputed between Russia and China. The winner of the last Dakar won in 5h12'59, over the two timed sections, and is 1'39" ahead of his teammate Cyril Despres.

The leader of the general classification, victim of a scare yesterday with a hydraulic leak and subsequent loss of the cylinder and power steering, is very close to a second success in the event, and can count on the support of the tandem Peterhansel – Cottret, who helped the pilot of the Peugeot 3008 DKR at the time of its technical problems yesterday.

« We had a hydraulic leak which deprived us of the cylinder and power steering, commented Despres yesterday. Normally we would have only lost a minute, but we stopped to try to repair.

All four of us, Stéphane, Jean-Paul, David and I, worked to find a solution, but we did not succeed. It's never easy in the middle of the desert. There remained forty-five kilometers of dunes to cross and our only option was to go to the end at all costs. »

The duo from Peugeot Sport showed themselves to be imperial this Friday, since the first pursuing car, driven by Christian Lavieille (Baicmotor BJ40L) conceded more than 19′ on the 3008 DKR. Interspersed in third and fourth positions, the Kamaz of Dmitry Sotnikov and Anton Shibalov shone today in the numerous dune crossings. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Mini JCW Rally) lost more than an hour this Friday.

In the general classification, Despres is more than an hour ahead of Christian Lavieille, back in second ahead of Han Wei (Geely SMG Buggy), before the final day tomorrow between Zhongwei and Xi'an. 716 km will be on the program with a 100 km special.

Silk Way Rally ranking after Stage 13