Silk Way Rally 2016

July 8–24, 2016

• The marathon rally spanned three countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, and China
• The route covered 10,735 kilometers, with over 4,000 kilometers of special sections
• 15 stages with special high-speed sections
• Participants from 40 countries
• 125 crews

The race began with a ceremonial start on July 8 in Red Square in Moscow, Russia. The rally concluded on July 24 in Beijing, China.

Winners in the off-road cars category:

• 1^st place – Cyril Despres, David Castera (TEAM PEUGEOT TOTAL);
• 2^nd place – Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Timo Gottschalk (MINI X-RAID TEAM);
• 3^rd place – Vladimir Vasiliev, Konstantin Zhiltsov (G-ENERGY TEAM).

Winners in the trucks category:

• 1^st place – Airat Mardeev, Aidar Belyaev, Dmitry Svistunov (KAMAZ-Master);
• 2^nd place – Dmitry Sotnikov, Ruslan Akhmadeev, Ivan Romanov (KAMAZ-Master);
• 3^rd place – Maarten van den Brink, Peter Willemsen, Daniel Kozlowski (MAMMOET RALLYSPORT).

In 2016, as a gesture of friendship between Russia and China, a unique team under the name of Belt and Road was set up by Gazprom and the Federation of Automobile Sports of the People’s Republic of China. The crew consisted of famous Chinese racers Hou Hongning and Shen Xin and veteran Russian mechanic Andrey Mokeev.

In their journey to the finish line, the international team overcame the language barrier, learning a completely new technique and going through a very complicated route. As a result, the Russian-Chinese crew’s KAMAZ truck finished fifth in its category.