The Silk Way Rally ended dramatically in Turkmenistan for the Red Bull Volkswagen team.
Nasser al-Attiyah had led the rally from the early stages in Russia, with the dominant VWs occupying the top four positions, though Carlos Sainz was al-Attiyah’s nearest rival as the rally crossed the Silk Way route from Russia, through Kazakhstan to Turkmenistan.
At the end of the seventh stage of nine, on September 11, al-Attiyah maintained a slender lead of 4m 56s after almost 21 hours of driving and thousands of hard, dusty, rocky kilometres. But, pushing hard to keep his advantage the next day, a mistake by the Qatari saw him lose control on stage eight and roll his Touareg, fortunately without injury to himself or co-driver Timo Gottschalk, but ending his participation.
“Of course we’re disappointed about retiring so close to the finish, but these things can happen in rally racing,” said al-Attiyah in the philosophical manner of a seasoned rally campaigner, before sounding a positive note for the events to come. “Timo and I grew together as a team. That was our major goal and we achieved it. We’re ready for the Dakar.” Gottschalk struck a similar note: “We proved that we’re serious contenders. Our time will come,” said the German.
© VW Motorsport/Red Bull Photofiles
With al-Attiyah out of the picture, it was left to Sainz to keep his concentration over the last two stages, which he duly did, finishing 21m 52s ahead of team-mate Mark Miller, who ended the ninth and final stage a further 6m 17s in front of this year’s Dakar Rally winner Giniel de Villiers for a VW one-two-three finish.
“My assessment of this rally is completely positive. Our car was running perfectly – the whole squad did an outstanding job,” said Sainz after the 4,896km marathon was over. “The duel with Nasser and Timo was really good fun. It’s a shame that they were unlucky in the end and had to retire,” added the Spaniard, able to sympathise after similar bad luck befell him at the Dakar Rally last January.
The Silk Way win follows victory in July for Sainz and co-driver Lucas Cruz in the Rally dos Sertões in Brazil, and points to another strong challenge in the 2010 Dakar, taking place for a second year in South America.
“Our prospects of again competing for victory at the Dakar Rally in January are good,” Sainz added.
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