RALLY DAKAR 2022

Russian domain in trucks

The day of the third special of the Dakar 2022 in trucks, this Tuesday (4) had a parade by Dmitry Sotnikov in the lead. The driver of the #500 truck, with Ruslan Akhmadeev and Ilgiz Akhmetzianov on his side, took first place right after the first checkpoint and never left. It was the Russian's second special victory at the start of the rally.

Sotnikov overcame Andrey Karginov and opened a slight lead to Kamaz's partner throughout the special. In the end, he completed the 255 km of timed stretch in 2h43min25s. So far, Sotnikov's Dakar 2022 has been clean and without a major bump.

Karginov took second place for another 1-2 for the Russian brand. Meanwhile, Janus van Kasteren entered third with Iveco's partner team. Anton Shibalov placed the third Kamaz truck in fourth place.

Dmitry Sotnikov won the third stage of the Dakar 2022 (Photo: Red Bull Content Pool)

Martin van den Brink and Ignacio Casale followed, while Eduard Nikolaev, who had been in an extremely tight race for the overall lead, had a difficult day. Despite spending a good part of the day in second place, he had problems in the last sector of the special and dropped to seventh place with a deficit of 9min38s.

Behind him, Martin Macik, Maurik van den Heuvel and Pascal de Baar closed the top-10.

In the overall standings, Sotnikov now has a time of 10h42min32s and managed to open 11min45s for Nikolaev, in second. The first four placed are exactly the trucks that make up the Kamaz quartet, with Karginov and Shibalov in third and fourth.

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