Stage 10 brought the Silk Way Rally across the border back into Russia, a trip that seemed to yield mixed feelings among the field. This was especially prevalent among the truck teams.

MAZ-SPORTauto went into Monday still reeling after their team leader Siarhei Viazovich crashed out in Stage 9 while leading the overall, leaving the Murylev brothers to carry the flag and try to salvage something. To add insult to injury, even that was only half achieved as Vitaliy Murylev retired due to poor-quality fuel damaging the cell.

Pavel Murylev, as the last MAZ standing, was the quickest truck for most of the stage before being passed by Anton Shibalov. Murylev kept the gap close to settle for second, finishing 56 seconds back.

After Viazovich bowed out, Shibalov assumed the overall lead going into Stage 10 with KAMAZ teammate Eduard Nikolaev just 49 seconds behind. Third- and fourth-placed Almaz Akhmedov and Dmitry Sotnikov were respectively 31 minutes and over three hours back, which would have made Monday a KAMAZ duel between Shibalov and Nikolaev.

However, that battle ultimately didn’t last long. Nikolaev hit a hole early into the stage that resulted in suspension damage. While he managed to reach the finish, he was sixth in class and 26 minutes back of Shibalov.

Nikolaev remains second in the overall, but he sits closer to third than the leader. Shibalov is ahead of him by 26:49, while Akhmedov is 13:50 back of Nikolaev. Barring catastrophe on Tuesday, Shibalov is on pace to win the SWR for a second time after claiming the 2019 edition.

“When the main rivals drop out, [the race] becomes boring,” Nikolaev opined. “Throughout the rally, there was intrigue. When we found out or rival (Viazovich) dropped out yesterday, it became pretty sad. In any case, we need to move forward.”

He wasn’t the only KAMAZ to struggle on Monday as Bogdan Karimov also failed to reach the finish on time, stemming from damage he sustained when he hit a washout. Pavel Murylev, who was fortunate enough to avoid them, also pointed out the high concentration of rocks and gullies throughout the stage.

“There were so many washouts on the track that we had to stop completely and reverse,” he remarked.

Yuri Naiman, now the highest running non-KAMAZ in fifth after Viazovich’s retirement, had a generator go out in the closing 100 kilometers. To save enough power to reach the finish, he shut off the air conditioning.

None of the classes experienced an overall lead change today. However, unlike T5, T3 remains up for grabs going into the final day as Dmitry Cherkesov leads his brother Alexey by just 2:09 and Roman Rusinov by 4:36.

Grigory Lein, the only entrant in Motorally Open, rejoined the race on Monday after being sidelined for much of the Mongolian leg of the rally. He set the ninth fastest time for riders.

Those unable to reach the border before 9 PM will have to wait until Tuesday morning to do so, though they run the risk of missing their assigned Stage 11 start time.

Stage 10 winners

Auto

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1	5	204	Pavel Andreev	404 Racing Team	2:44:13
T2	26	214	Merdan Toylyev	Federation of Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	4:11:53
T3	6	205	Roman Rusinov	G-Drive Racing	2:48:05
T5	1	305	Anton Shibalov	KAMAZ-master	2:29:58
Open	11	218	Amartuvshin Khasagkhuu	Rally Mongolia	3:02:29

Moto

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
Motorally 450	1	11	Murun Purevdorj	Team Mongolia	3:07:06
Motorally Quad	5	176	Alexey Zverev	RM Sport	3:55:29
Motorally Open	9	59	Grigory Lein	SWD Racing	4:46:24
G-Moto Challenge	2	30	Ekaterina Zhadanova	DRC Racing Team	3:40:16

Leaders after Stage 10

Auto

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1	9	204	Pavel Andreev	404 Racing Team	28:45:26
T2	19	214	Merdan Toylyev	Federation of Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan	58:29:05
T3	5	209	Dmitry Cherkesov	Dmitry Cherkesov	27:50:59
T5	1	305	Anton Shibalov	KAMAZ-master	23:38:50
Open	10	223	Anatoly Kuznetsov	Anatoly Kuznetsov	32:40:36

Moto

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
Motorally 450	1	11	Murun Purevdorj	Team Mongolia	29:53:13
Motorally Quad	4	176	Alexey Zverev	RM Sport	40:20:31
Motorally Open	15	59	Grigory Lein	SWD Racing	126:19:08
G-Moto Challenge	2	30	Ekaterina Zhadanova	DRC Racing Team	32:27:05

Featured image credit: KAMAZ-master