Volkswagen hat-trick at the end of the Silk Road

At the start of this ninth and final stage of the rally, the game was almost over. Because, following the change of program imposed by the visit of the three presidents of the organizing countries? including the President of Russia, Dimitri Medvedev –, officials decided that the last timed special, 24 km long, would not count for the final classification. Only a serious mechanical problem occurring on the 600 km link between Turkmenbashi and Ashagabat, and preventing a car from reaching the parc ferme, could change the final ranking?

Following his accident the day before, Nasser Al Attiyah did not leave this morning. Instead of a quadruplet, VW achieves a simple treble. After a tough battle against the Qatari driver, Carlos Sainz wins by KO The Spaniard continues his victorious momentum after winning the Rally dos Sertoes, contested at the beginning of July in Brazil. The American Mark Miller took a convincing second place, ahead of Giniel De Villiers, the only VW driver to have been delayed by a small mechanical problem at the start of the event. For the honor, De Villiers won the small special stage contested this morning.

After the massacre that occurred to the outsiders, it was finally the Russian Ruslan Misikov (Nissan Navarra Pickup) who finished in fourth place, behind the Volkswagens. Of the seven French crews at the start, only three reached the finish, the best placed being the SMG V8 buggy of the Basque Errandonea, 12th overall.