The first stage of the Silk Way Rally is basically a prologue. At just eight kilometers, it’s hardly enough distance to make any impressions for the rest of the rally, though it’s still important to set the tone in some way.

KAMAZ-master certainly got the memo in their quest to repeat. Bogdan Karimov set the fastest time under fairly toasty conditions (86° F) on Saturday, beating team boss Eduard Nikolaev by just four seconds. If not for Siarhei Viazovich finishing third, seven seconds back of Karimov, KAMAZ trucks would have locked out the top four.

Defending winner Dmitry Sotnikov placed fourth with a nearly identical time to Viazovich as they both completed the course in five minutes and 50 seconds, though Viazovich edged him out by just three-tenths of a second.

Andrey Rudskoy, the first car to complete the stage, topped T1 with six seconds on Pavel Andreev. Anastasiya Nifontova likewise was quickest in T3 by seven seconds over Ruslan Guryev. 2024 T3 victor Roman Rusinov placed fifth in class.

“After the KAMAZ trucks, [the course] became wider and more open,” said Nifontova. “We drove at an average pace because we didn’t want to start first tomorrow.”

Anton Kushnikov and Sergei Kariakin received one-hour time penalties for the day. The former’s truck did not show up to technical inspection in time because Ural Motorsport was still working on ironing out some issues; they eventually got the truck finished and it cleared scrutineering, though he was given a penalty for his tardiness. Kariakin was plagued by electronics issues that led to multiple checkpoints not being validated as he crossed them.

Kushnikov’s Ural teammate Yuri Naiman struggled with his brake bias, which were skewed towards the front brakes that they overheated whereas the rear remained virtuallly unused. Naiman settled for ninth in T5 and 11th overall.

The new Lada Niva Sport Turbo went 1–2 in Open with Dmitry Voronov and Mikhail Mityaev. The former beat his teammate by 28 seconds.

After the stage, the ceremonial start was held at Mikhail Speransky Square in Irkutsk.

Stage 1 winners

Auto

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1	6	202	Andrey Rudskoy	NG-Energo Rally Team	5:52
T2	26	215	Maksatmyrat Danatarov	Federation of Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	7:15
T3	12	210	Anastasiya Nifontova	G-Drive Racing	6:03
T5	1	304	Bogdan Karimov	KAMAZ-master	5:43
Open	13	217	Dmitry Voronov	Lada Sport Auto Finance	6:04

Moto

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
Motorally 450	1	32	Ilya Shcheglov	Doc 32	6:27
Motorally Quad	2	176	Alexey Zverev	RM Sport	6:39
Motorally Open	16	59	Grigory Lein	SWD Racing	9:43
G-Moto Challenge	3	30	Ekaterina Zhadanova	DRC Racing Team	7:06

Featured image credit: KAMAZ-master