– Al-Rajhi/Gottschalk still the fastest MINI ALL4 Racing pairing
– Hunt/Schulz in the way up
50 percent of the fastest cars in the overall standings of the 2016 Silk Way Rally are MINI ALL4 Racing vehicles. With 10 of the 15 stages contested, Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA) and Timo Gottschalk (GER) hold third position, followed by Russian pairing Vladimir Vasilyev / Konstantin Zhiltsov.
Meanwhile, Harry Hunt (GBR) and Andreas Schulz (GER) continued to work their way up and currently hold fifth place. Behind them, Aidyn Rakhimbayev (KAZ) / Anton Nikolaev (RUS) and Bauyrzhan Issabayev / Vladimir Demyanenko (RUS) follow in sixth and eighth positions respectively.
The past two stages, Urumqi-Hami and Hami-Dunhuang, featured a lot of extremely bumpy sections that suited the buggies better than the all-wheel driven cars. Furthermore, they took the field for the first time into the dunes. There, Al-Rajhi and Gottschalk got stuck and lost some time – and it cost them additional time when they had to look for a way point. Therefore, they had to settle for finishing fourth. “Today’s special stage actually should have been a good one for us,