Press release

​Artur Ardavichus, the Kazakh driver on board the Powerstar #310, finished the daily stage in sixth place and remains fifth in the overall.

Dutch pilots Ton Van Genugten and Gerard De Rooy crosssed the finish line of this third Chinese stage in 8^th and 9^th place respectively. Van Genugten is firmly in 8^th position of the partial general ranking, while Team leader De Rooy is 16^th.

The third stage of 2017 Silk Way Rally hosted in Chinese territory started from Hami and reached Dunhuang after crossing a big wadi with magnificent landscapes: about 320 km of special stage (total distance 517.53 km), very fast at the start and then more technical and slower with many changes of direction.

Ardavichus was again at the daily start line ahead his teammates. He finished this SS with a time of 3h43m58s, just 8m37s behind the first. Thanks to his careful driving, the Kazakh was again in 5^th position of the overall ranking after ten hard stages. He really could be the man of this edition of the famous rally raid for Team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO, beside Russia, Kazakhstan and China.

This stage of the Silk Way Rally was more difficult for the other two members of the team: De Rooy, who started just behind Ardavichus, was slowed down by some mechanical issues and lost about half an hour. "The special was very nice with some amazing passages and the truck felt good even if not in optimum conditions. We are waiting for the special and the dunes of tomorrow" – said Gerard who placed 9^th in the daily ranking.

Today, July 19^th, as the first special was due to be run in a region that has very recently declared a nature reserve by the Chinese authorities, the organisers of the Silk Way Rally have decided to cancel ES11A while maintaining the second timed special (ES11B) of the 11^th stage. Held in wide sand river and between the canyons, it will be very fast at the end.

Stage 10 results – Silk Way Rally 2017

1. Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz) 3h35m21s
2. Martin Kolomy (Tatra) +1m29s
3. Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz) +2m29s
4. Anton Shibalov (Kamaz) +3m14s
5. Airat Mardeev (Kamaz) +5m47s
6. Artur Ardavichus (IVECO) +8m37s
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8. Ton Van Genugten (IVECO) +29m27s
9. Gerard De Rooy (IVECO) +29m46s

Overall classification – Silk Way Rally 2017

1. Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz) 31h27m50s
2. Anton Shibalov (Kamaz) +15m12s
3. Airat Mardeev (Kamaz) +29m48s
4. Martin Kolomy (Tatra) +30m30s
5. Artur Ardavichus (IVECO) +1h50m07s
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8. Ton Van Genugten (IVECO) +8h19m21s
16. Gerard De Rooy (IVECO) +215h23m56s

Starting order for SS11 – 19th July 2017