MOSCOW, Jan 13The winner of the 11th stage of the Dakar rally-raid, Eduard Nikolaev, said that he helped Dmitry Sotnikov, his partner in KAMAZ-master, during the race. The penultimate stage of the rally-raid was held on Thursday, Nikolaev won. The second was the KAMAZ-master crew under the control of Andrey Karginov, the third — Sotnikov. «Today was a difficult and interesting special stage, it reminded me of the Argentine stages of the Dakar in South America,» the team's press service quotes Nikolaev. «The race was for endurance «Very strong impassability, a lot of difficult sands and dunes. But we managed. Dmitry Sotnikov got stuck on one of the dunes, and we helped our crew get out. Three of us reached the neutralization zone — Andrey Karginov joined us. A real «Dakar» working day, We should have more of these. For many, such conditions were unexpected. «Sotnikov thanked Nikolaev for his help. “The top of the dune turned out to be very loose, and when I saw a steep descent, I tried to pick up speed, but it wasn’t enough,” Sotnikov said. “As a result, Edik Nikolaev pulled our truck, thanks to him. We were already driving after the guys. Karginov was looking for a point. The stage is very difficult, a lot of off-road, channels, soft dunes. This has not happened for a very long time. Today, for the first time in Saudi Arabia, such high dunes were «tried». The last time similar dunes were in Peru. Working special stage, I think, today everyone «KAMAZ-master» rider Anton Shibalov, who became fifth at the special stage, said that at the start of the stage the crew experienced technical problems due to a broken muffler pipe. “I had to stop, come up with a repair — they built up the pipe, tied it with wire,” the pilot commented on the results. “Because of the high temperature, there was a risk of burning plastic pipes and facing serious problems. The remaining 330 kilometers to the finish line drove more carefully. a lot of time, but the main thing is that we were able to finish the special stage. «Before the last stage, Sotnikov is in the lead in the overall standings, Nikolaev is a little more than eight minutes behind him, Shibalov — more than an hour. The rally-raid will end on Friday.
