Sam Sunderland has once again maintained his lead in the Silk Way Rally as the Red Bull KTM rider finished fifth at Stage Eight of the Silk Way Rally.
Photo credits: KTM Factory Racing
The 2019 Silk Way Rally has started its course through China and Sam Sunderland has completed Stage Eight to maintain his lead. Luciano Benavides also managed to put up a strong performance to come in as the fifth fastest but gained a five-minute penalty to drop him to fourth in the overall standings. Laia Sanz finished her run at 12th place.
Stage Eight consisted of challenging terrain with tough navigation. It has a total distance of 785.11 kilometres. The 326.6-kilometre timed special included a mixture of fast, rock-strewn tracks, dry river beds and the tall dunes of the Gobi Desert.
Sam Sunderland (Red Bull KTM)- As It Happened
Photo credits: KTM Factory Racing
“I got welcomed into China in a bit of a rough way to be honest as I had a crash just 15 kilometres into the stage and ended up tasting the Chinese soil. After that I just tried to push and make up for the error that I’d made. The terrain was super nice with lots of variety. It has rocks and rivers and wash-outs but was also very challenging with lots of dangers marked on the road book. The last part of the stage was made up of huge mountainous dunes, some you couldn’t even ride up. It made navigation very tricky and there was a lot of vegetation everywhere. Overall, apart from the mistake early on, my day went well so I’ll regroup now and get back on it for tomorrow,” says Sunderland as quoted from KTM Factory Racing.
Luciano Benavides (Red Bull KTM)- As It Happened
Photo credits: KTM Factory Racing
“For me, that was the toughest stage of the rally so far. They had to change my Iritrack before the beginning of the stage. So I had to set off right near the back. I had plenty of lines in front of me and tried to make a good rhythm in the dunes. But then had a small crash that damaged my road book switch, so I had to adjust that manually from then on. I lost some time after that but I’m happy to finish the stage in one piece. I’m looking forward to tomorrow now.”
Photo credits: KTM Factory Racing
Laia Sanz (Red Bull KTM)- As It Happened
Photo credits: KTM Factory Racing
“That was tough – it was such an exhausting stage, I’m happy to get to the finish. I started off well. But as the stage went on, I had to slow down a little because I got a little bit tired. Maybe I didn’t eat enough today but towards the end I just felt drained. I had no crashes and no problems though, so this is important.”
Photo credits: KTM Factory Racing
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