Press release

​Team Leader Gerard De Rooy, on his Powerstar Evo 2, crossed the finish line in this difficult stage in 4^th position, ahead of his teammates.

Artur Ardavichus finished in 7^th place on his Powerstar, improving his overall ranking to 4^th place two stages from the end of the Silk Way Rally.

Ton Van Genugten and new co-pilot Bart De Gooyert arrived 8^th, placing the third IVECO truck in the top ten of the day.

For Team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO yesterday's stage, from the bivouac in Jiayugan to Alashan Youqi, finished with very good results. Team leader Gerard De Rooy did particularly well, crossing the finish line with a time of 4h14m33s. The new completely renovated Powerstar arrived fourth in the day's stage: "We lost time because of a problem with a tyre, otherwise we could have made an even better time – said Gerard – We enjoyed very much driving in the dunes: the cloudy weather and milder temperature helped us".

Artur Ardavichus, behind the wheel of the other IVECO Powerstar, drove carefully avoiding risks in order to maintain or improve his place in the overall. Marco Alcayna Ferran, in his second stage as co-pilot (he replaced injured Belgian Serge Bruynkens) explained: "Today we faced beautiful dunes. I will say it was one of the most difficult legs since the beginning of the rally. The truck has a lot of power and this was really important to cross the long kilometers of sand." Thanks to the result obtained yesterday after leg 12, the Kazakh pilot is in the 4^th position of the general with an advantage of more than 12 minutes ahead of Nikolaev's Kamaz.

Dutchman Ton Van Genugten (#306) also completed the SS12 in the top ten of the partial classification, crossing the finish line in 8^th place. Now in his second day with new co-driver Bart De Gooyert, he drove faster and he was also able to improve the overall position: behind the wheel of his IVECO Trakker, he is now in 7^th place.

Thanks to the team's mechanical experts – John Peeters, Niels van Tilborg, Ramon Peters, Franklin Geerts, Paul Starmans, Peter van Rooij, Corne van Drunen, Clim Smulders, Koen Hendriks and Pjotr Hylla – Team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO was able to resolve all unforeseen events occurred in the particularly tough stages of the Silk Way Rally.

Today, July 21^st, competitors left early to face magnificent landscapes and especially to cross cathedrals of dunes in the first special stage. The show promises to be really great. The second SS also includes a lot of navigation with some small but very technical sections of dunes. It is a pure pleasure to surf in this sand especially on the ridges and this should allow the most adventurous to save a lot of time. This leg will probably add some pages to the history of the Silk Way Rally.
Total distance: 690.31 km of which 318.66.

Stage 12 results – Silk Way Rally 2017

1. Airat Mardeev (Kamaz) 4h04m08s
2. Anton Shibalov (Kamaz) +2m15s
3. Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz) +3m01s
4. Gerard De Rooy (IVECO) +10m25s
5. Siarhei Viazovich (Maz) +13m33s
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7. Artur Ardavichus (IVECO) +22m20s
8. Ton Van Genugten (IVECO) +23m13s

Overall classification – Silk Way Rally 2017

1. Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz) 38h16m38s
2. Anton Shibalov (Kamaz) +3m04s
3. Airat Mardeev (Kamaz) +17m54s
4. Artur Ardavichus (IVECO) +2h03m14s
5. Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz) +2h15m53s
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7. Ton Van Genugten (IVECO) +8h42m34s
13. Gerard De Rooy (IVECO) +215h24m54s

Starting order for SS14 – 21th July 2017