Liaison 1: 505 km
Special stage: 58 km
Liaison 2: 148 km

Schwarz wins the special test in the Taiga

The second stage of the Transsyberia Rally 2008 powered by Sony Ericsson got an early start. The organizers and media representatives set out at 5 am and at 7am all the pilots also started off eastward. The weather during the 711 km drive from Vladimir to Kazan varied, from strong rain to summery white-blue skies.

The second evaluation test took place in the Russian Taiga, near the Wolga. The 58 km long stretch went through coniferous woods and past birches. Wet loam and sand made the course extremely slippery. In addition, standing rain water in the numerous ruts and tracks made life difficult for the pilots. Naturally, after some crossings, mud particles formed which dirtied the radiator grills of the off-road vehicles. Not only did the cars look as if they just had a Fango treatment, some of the motors were extremely overheated at the finish.

Together with his experienced navigator Andreas Schulz, Germany’s rally legend Armin Schwarz found the fastest way through the forest and won with his Porsche Cayenne S Transsyberia. The Russian Team of Denis Levyatov and Sergey Talantsev came in only five seconds afterwards and were very happy about this success in their homeland. After an unlucky first day, Team Iberica trumped up today with a third place. The Spaniard Pau Soler and his co-pilot Laia Peinando showed that bright days can follow gloomy ones, when the effort, the team spirit and the determination are right.

In the overall standings, Team Portugal with the pilots Gameiro/Figueiredo is still in the lead after the second of 14 stages with an advantage of 5.45 minutes to Christian Lavieille/Francois Borsotto (Team France) and 6.38 minutes to Lars Kern/Daniel van Kan (Team Germany 3).

On Sunday the longest stage of the Transsyberia Rally 2008 powered by Sony Ericsson from Kazan to Yekaterinburg is taking place. Almost 1000 kilometers will take the teams from Europe, across the Ural to Asia.


Results

Special stage, July 12th, 2008 (pdf)
Overall, July 12th, 2008 (pdf)

Further impressions in the gallery

Sony Ericsson, partner of this year’s Transsyberia Rally powered by Sony Ericsson, will be sending its new outdoor C702 Cyber-shot cell phone on the 4,349 mile long off-road adventure from Moscow through the Siberian expanses into the depths of Mongolia.

Due to its specific characteristics, like the GPS, as well as the dust and splash water guard, this active cell phone is predestined for the challenges the participants are faced with from July 11th – 25th, 2008.

At the Geo-Tagging Site you are able to look at the pictures, the teams and staff took at the previous day.