Transsyberia Rally: Ammin Schwarz leg five summary

Another special stage won - Up to fifth overall

With a total distance of over 700 kilometres and a 78 kilometre special stage this sixth leg of the Transsyberia Rally was a true test. And it went well for us. We won the stage and are up in fifth overall now. The stage was all gravel, very fast but partly twisty, narrow, and it had a few quite brutal bumps.

We took it easy over the bumps ...

My navigator Andi Schulz and I were 4.14 min faster than Christian Lavieille (France) who was second through the stage, Russia's Denis Levyatov was third. That was the third special stage we were able to win. Antonio Tognana and his co Carlo Cassina had to retire after Antonio hit one of the bumps at very high speed. With his retirement we moved up to fifth overall. At the same time we kept on reducing the gap to the leader. Yesterday we were almost 35 minutes behind, today it's 26:35. Not bad if you keep in mind that we were tenth after the first leg, were we got stuck in a waterhole for a long time.

... other than our colleague from Russia.

Said al Hajri is the new overall leader, while Pedro Gameiro from Portugal lost his lead in a water crossing. Pedro is fourth now, just two minutes ahead of us.

Tomorrow we'll take 890 kilometres from Novosibirsk to Kosh Agash under the wheels. Unfortunately tomorrow's special stage had to be cancelled as with one ambulance bringing Antonio Tognana to the hospital there is only one more ambulance left.

Back here tomorrow with news from Kosh Agash,

Armin

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-credit: armin schwarz