[Rally-Raid] Peugeot currently leading the 2016 Silk Way Rally...

[Tom206wrc]

Hi,

Since this week is running the Silk Way Rally, a long rally-raid crossing Russia(started in Moscow), Kazakhstan and China(ending in Beijing)

Peugeot-Sport entered three drivers for the occasion, the frenchmen Sébastien Loeb, Stéphane Peterhansel and Cyril Després...their main opponents are Yazeed Al Rajhi and Vladimir Vasilyev, both in their new cars, a Mini from X-Raid team(they drove for Toyota on the Dakar earlier this season)

Up to today sunday, 8 stages has been run(even if one has been cancelled and another shortened both due to weather problems)and we just finished with Russia to enter in China(all the stages of next week)

Peugeot-Sport and their drivers(but also Al Rajhi and Vasilyev I guess) are using the roads as preparation for 2017 Dakar, and a fantastic Cyril Després is currently leading with a huge gap of 7 minutes over Sébastien Loeb(then Vasilyev and Al Rajhi are following in the classification)

Very unfortunate was Stéphane Peterhansel who usually commits very few mistakes in his racing life, but therefore crashed during an early leg(rolled)and lost all his chances to shine(he's still running though, with 9 hours late on Cyril)

Cyril Després impresses me on this race, I have the feeling he climbed another level after 2016 Dakar and could get a really good result in 2017 !!!
Of course Sébastien Loeb is also running very well, but terrain looks more like a "classic rally" for now, and dunes/sand aren't in sight yet

To follow the rest of the event http://www.silkwayrally.com/

[Tom206wrc]

By the way, if you noticed the absences of Nasser Al Attiyah(who left Mini for Toyota), Carlos Sainz or Mikko Hirvonen, you will find them next week on the Baja Aragon(Spain)