The Silk Way Rally is typically one for the trucks as KAMAZ-master and MAZ-SPORTauto do battle. Conversely, the Toyota Hilux is arguably the top vehicle in international rally raid today.

Seems appropriate that a Hilux would be the one to punch the trucks in the mouths.

The fastest Auto entry in each of the first six stages had been a KAMAZ or MAZ, but Pavel Andreev bucked that trend when his Hilux T1 reached the finish first and with the fastest time on Friday. He beat an army of KAMAZs, edging out their best runner Anton Shibalov by just 36 seconds.

While the KAMAZs often outpaced his Hilux, the early rain and dust that followed once it let up played into Andreev’s hands. KAMAZ’s Almaz Akhmedov particularly had a fun battle with the Hilux on the transition between conditions.

“On one straightaway, Pavel Andreev’s Toyota Hilux passed us, but we fought back where the narrow roads began and ran into dust,” Akhmedov recalled. “Then we swapped positions again. That’s how we drove, the average speed today should be high.”

The Stage 7 victory also reinforced Andreev’s massive lead in the T1 battle. Andrey Rudskoy spun after hitting a puddle eight kilometers into the stage, and got back on his rhythm after the rain stopped only for the dust cap to come off. He now trails Andreev in the overall by an hour and 36 minutes.

A day after placing 1–2–3–4–6, KAMAZ settled for a 2–3–4–5–9. Despite coming up short, Shibalov’s finish moves him past the MAZ of Siarhei Viazovich, who finished sixth, for the top spot in the overall by 1:30.

The top five trucks for Stage 7 were separated by less than two minutes. Dmitry Sotnikov, third overall and second in class, was just 18 seconds behind Shibalov and ahead of Eduard Nikolaev by 57 seconds. Akhmedov lost to Nikolaev by 29 seconds while clearing Viazovich by 16. The final KAMAZ of Bogdan Karimov was ninth.

Viazovich losing the overall lead partly stemmed from him racing a conservative strategy because of the course and Stage 7 being held under marathon rules. He trails Shibalov by 1:30 but also has Nikolaev breathing down his neck for second with a 1:33 margin between them.

“The first half of the special: not a single turn, straightaways the whole time. The second half: continuous transverse gullies. It’s very painful for a car to go through such terrain,” Viazovich explained. “Therefore, in the second half, we slowed down.

“We saw that in the first half that we had either the best time or the same time as Anton Shibalov. In the second half, we slowed down because we figured it was better to save the car now for the second day of the marathon than to chase the fastest time.”

His MAZ teammate Vitaliy Murylev lost his radiator fan and had to finish at half throttle to avoid overheating, relegating him to tenth in T5 and 20th overall. Brother Pavel Murylev avoided trouble to finish eighth in class, missing the top ten outright for the day by 5:47.

After losing ground and the Moto lead to Murun Purevdorj when the race crossed into the latter’s home country, Ilya Shcheglov regained his footing to beat him for the Stage 7 win by 57 seconds. Purevdorj remains the top bike with an eight-minute advantage over Shcheglov.

Multiple riders did not finish and had to take the joker (a mulligan that lets them rejoin the race if they retired from a stage) including Grigory Lein, the lone entrant in the Motorally Open class.

Stage 7 winners

Auto

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1	1	204	Pavel Andreev	404 Racing Team	2:28:14
T2	22	215	Maksatmyrat Danatarov	Federation of Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	3:13:50
T3	12	209	Dmitry Cherkesov	Dmitry Cherkesov	2:53:28
T5	2	305	Anton Shibalov	KAMAZ-master	2:28:50
Open	10	218	Amartuvshin Khasagkhuu	Rally Mongolia	2:45:18

Moto

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
Motorally 450	1	32	Ilya Shcheglov	Doc 32	2:54:25
Motorally Quad	6	176	Alexey Zverev	RM Sport	3:54:30
Motorally Open	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	N/A	DNF
G-Moto Challenge	3	71	Ivan Li	Ivan Li	50:00:00

Leaders after Stage 7

Auto

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1	6	204	Pavel Andreev	404 Racing Team	14:11:29
T2	19	215	Maksatmyrat Danatarov	Federation of Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	18:17:15
T3	7	207	Alexey Cherkesov	Alexey Cherkesov	15:23:11
T5	1	305	Anton Shibalov	KAMAZ-master	13:16:43
Open	13	220	Mikhail Mityaev	Lada Sport Auto Finance	16:31:19

Moto

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
Motorally 450	1	11	Murun Purevdorj	Team Mongolia	16:03:43
Motorally Quad	8	176	Alexey Zverev	RM Sport	23:25:29
Motorally Open	16	59	Grigory Lein	SWD Racing	80:25:57
G-Moto Challenge	3	71	Ivan Li	Ivan Li	17:00:50

Featured image credit: Anton Elikov