MAZ with a hood for the 1st time participated in Dakar and took bronze!
The MAZ truck in the "bonnet" performance, managed by Sergey Vyazovich, became the bronze medalist in the Dakar 2020 rally-raid. "Dakar", as you know, is the most prestigious stage race in the world of motorsport. And all the more, it is already the second time in history that the cars of the Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ) climb the podium according to the results of the end of the tour. And in 2018. This was achieved at the "classic" MAZ. 2020 for the bonnet was a debut at the Dakar. Belarusians looked very solid at the beginning: according to the results of the first three stages, they held second place in the general classification. Belarusians failed to keep this line, MAZ Sergei Vyazovich was on the podium with an honorary bronze: The team "MAZSportAvto" for the third place received the legendary Dakar statuettes "Golden Bedouins". Another MAZ, led by the young Belarusian Alexei Vishnevsky, improved the result of his performances at the Dakar, taking the 8th position. The third MAZ crew (pilot Alexander Vasilevsky) completed the race in 12th place. In total, about 50 crews took part in the truck class. The route ran through the deserts, dunes and rocky roads of Saudi Arabia, which was a serious test for both cars and pilots, only 29 trucks reached the finish line. But as you know, the rally was held not only in the truck class, and there were some tragedies. So when falling from his motorcycle at the seventh stage, the Portuguese motorcycle racer Paulo Gonçalves crashed to death.