After crossing the border on Tuesday, the Silk Way Rally’s fifth stage was the first exclusively in Mongolia. And boy, did the hometown racers know how to defend their turf.

Like in Stage 4, Murun Purevdorj was the fastest bike as he beat Ilya Shcheglov. Officially, the margin between the was just eight seconds because Purevdorj received three minutes of penalties for being late to the start and speeding; he was supposed to be the first rider on course but started fourth due to the delay.

Save for a snag where Shcheglov hit a rock in the bushes, the two rode the stage together. Shcheglov seemed to enjoy the grasslands in a break from the deserts, describing the former as “very beautiful” and “very fast”. He still holds the overall lead with 5:40 on Purevdorj.

“I went through with the other riders one by one,” Purevdorj commented. “As usual, there were a lot of turns on the course so I had to be cautious. Riding in the car tracks is easy since you don’t need to read the roadbook. But I’m here not to have fun, but just to win. I love dunes and I’m really looking forward to them.”

Purevdorj wasn’t the only Mongolian thriving on the steppes Wednesday. Amartuvshin Khasagkhuu scored his best overall finish of the race when he placed eighth (second top ten of the SWR after a tenth in Stage 3) and topped the Open class by 20 minutes over Anatoly Kuznetsov. He was the only Open driver to set a sub-two-hour time.

Further back in Open, the Ladas of Dmitry Voronov and Mikhail Mityaev opted to race more conservatively to protect their cars. Consequently, they posted their worst finishes of the rally as Voronov was 27 minutes behind Khasagkhuu and 19th overall whereas Mityaev was half an hour back in 21st.

“Today was a great day, maybe a little dusty,” Khasagkhuu commented. “The track was excellent and we didn’t have any problems. My native land is helping me.”

Siarhei Viazovich won the stage for Auto, though mainly due to a strategic call by rival KAMAZ-master. Dmitry Sotnikov and Eduard Nikolaev, who finished 1–2 on Tuesday, slowed down and let Viazovich pass them so that neither KAMAZ would have to open Stage 6 on Thursday. While Viazovich had to deal with a hood mount bracket breaking, he still reached the finish 51 seconds ahead of KAMAZ’s Anton Shibalov. Viazovich remains atop the Auto overall with nearly two minutes on Shibalov.

While not on sand and dunes, the grass shouldn’t be underestimated either. T1 winner Pavel Andreev noted he saw a MAZ go the wrong way early on. He and Yuri Naiman also had issues with their comms: Andreev’s radio glitched at the start while Naiman did the final 40 kilometers without one after his microphone came off. MAZ’s Vitaliy Murylev battled steering column issues that relegated him to ninth for T5.

Naiman’s Ural teammate Anton Kushnikov finished at the bottom for T5 after hitting a hole in a ravine that damaged the tie rod and a left wheel. Fellow Ural driver Alexey Popov stopped to help him straighten the rod and replace the tire, only for the latter to burst because it was overinflated. Kushnikov stopped again to change it, but the jacks jammed in the process so he and his team had to dig a “hole half a meter deep”.

At the end of the day, Kushnikov was just glad to reach the finish.

Stage 5 winners

Auto

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1	7	204	Pavel Andreev	404 Racing Team	1:55:00
T2	22	215	Maksatmyrat Danatarov	Federation of Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	2:27:53
T3	12	209	Dmitry Cherkesov	Dmitry Cherkesov	2:09:52
T5	1	302	Siarhei Viazovich	MAZ-SPORTauto	1:48:23
Open	8	218	Amartuvshin Khasagkhuu	Rally Mongolia	1:57:55

Moto

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
Motorally 450	1	11	Murun Purevdorj	Team Mongolia	2:12:42
Motorally Quad	15	176	Alexey Zverev	RM Sport	4:11:49
Motorally Open	9	59	Grigory Lein	SWD Racing	2:59:12
G-Moto Challenge	3	71	Ivan Li	Ivan Li	2:18:40

Leaders after Stage 5

Auto

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1	6	204	Pavel Andreev	404 Racing Team	8:12:10
T2	20	215	Maksatmyrat Danatarov	Federation of Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	10:24:33
T3	7	207	Alexey Cherkesov	Alexey Cherkesov	8:25:44
T5	1	302	Siarhei Viazovich	MAZ-SPORTauto	7:25:49
Open	12	223	Anatoly Kuznetsov	Anatoly Kuznetsov	9:14:38

Moto

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
Motorally 450	1	32	Ilya Shcheglov	Doc 32	9:03:46
Motorally Quad	10	176	Alexey Zverev	RM Sport	14:17:27
Motorally Open	16	59	Grigory Lein	SWD Racing	24:00:55
G-Moto Challenge	3	71	Ivan Li	Ivan Li	9:41:23

Featured image credit: erka.90k