Success after a tough job: Volkswagen factory driver Carlos Sainz and his co-driver Lucas Cruz (E/E) won the fourth and at 878 kilometres the longest leg of the Silk Way Rally through Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan – albeit with a razor-thin lead: At the finish Sainz/Cruz were merely 20 seconds apart from their team colleagues Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA), with whom they had fought a distant duel throughout the day. In the overall standings, the Volkswagen pairing Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk (Q/D), who suffered a bit of misfortune today, continues running in front. The leading duo lost several minutes due to a slow puncture and subsequent tyre change. They finished the leg in third place ahead of Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D). The four Race Touareg vehicles arrived at the finish with a gap of just 3m 12s between them – a clear sign of the enormous balance within the Volkswagen factory team. The fourth leg took the teams in the west of Kazakhstan from Oral (Russian: Uralsk) at high speed through a completely flat steppe region, empty desert – partially on very soft sand – and ended in Beyneu (Kazakhstan).

#100 – Giniel de Villiers (ZA), 4th place leg / 4th place overall “The leg today was pretty fast to drive, for a large part on sand – a genuine cross-country marathon leg. But I’m a bit disappointed with our result because we were lacking the necessary speed. When Mark overtook us, we weren’t able to follow. We’ll work on the set-up of our car till tomorrow.”
#101 – Carlos Sainz (E), 1st place leg / 2nd place overall “This was a really long day. The leg was totally flat, very quick and, in some parts, very hard to cope with for the navigators. That the gaps between the members of the Volkswagen team on such a long leg are so close shows how strong our whole squad is. Tomorrow we’re in for another tough leg.”
#103 – Mark Miller (USA), 2nd place leg / 3rd place overall “We set a very good pace today and were clearly leading over long stretches. Unfortunately, navigating was pretty difficult and we lost some time as a result. The characteristics of the leg, particularly towards the end, reminded me of the off-road sections of the Dakar Rally.”

#104 – Nasser Al-Attiyah (Q), 2nd place leg- / 1st place overall “On the whole, I’m happy with the result because over such a long distance it’s never easy to open the course and find the right way. Nevertheless, we were running well until we caught a puncture and had to change the wheel. After that, we again fought a nice duel with Carlos and Lucas.”

Interim standings after Leg 04, Uralsk (KZ) – Beyneu (KZ) 580.95 km/877.53 km SS 05/total

• 1 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk (Q/D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 5h 14m 58s (3) 8h 32m 00s
• 2 Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (E/E) Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 5h 13m 05s (1) + 2m 03s
• 3 Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA) Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 5h 13m 25s (2) + 8m 33s
• 4 Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 5h 16m 17s (4) + 11m 57s
• 5 Christian Lavieille/Jean-Michel Polato (F/F) Nissan 5h 54m 11s (5) + 1h 03m 22s
• 6 Matthias Kahle/Thomas Schünemann (D/D) Honda 5h 59m 26s (7) + 1h 14m 43s
• 7 Philippe Gache/Fabrice Gordon (F/F) SMG 5h 59m 10s (6) + 1h 37m 39s
• 8 Bernard Errandonea/Jean-Pierre Garcin (F/F) SMG 6h 28m 32s (11) +1h 45m 43s
• 9 Ruslan Misikov/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS/RUS) Nissan 6h 22m 09s (10) +1h 45m 45s
• 10 Maris Saukans/Didzis Zarnis (LV/LV) OSC 6h 17m 57s (9) +1h 51m 57s

Press release Volkswagen Motorsport – Puro Off Road is registered news user with Volkswagen Motorsport and Volkswagen of America

Related posts:

1. Silk Way Rally, Leg 2
2. VW still lead 1,2,3 – Al-Attiyah reduces gap to Sainz
3. Al-Attiyah and Carlos Sainz fighting for overall victory
4. Most difficult stage of the rally
5. Sainz and Périn retired after accident

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This post was written by Memin