“We have a chance!”
As a newcomer on the Dakar last year, Kazakhstan's Artur Ardavichus impressed, finishing in 8th place on the podium in Buenos Aires. Quite a performance for an unknown team that was able to prove their professionalism and courage to the world of off road rallying. For this new edition of the event, the Astana team shows up with a renewed crew in a modernized Kamaz, hoping to take a prize place at the finish of the race. Artur Ardavichus remains the man behind the steering wheel but will have at his side navigator Alexei Kuzmich and mechanic Nurlan Turlubayev. Team Astana is the first team not only from Kazakhstan, but also throughout Central Asia, participating in this prestigious and popular event.
"We are ready to fight and will do everything to get to the finish with maximum efficiency. The route of the rally this year is shorter, but they say - much harder. We will try to go as fast as possible, but at the same time drive very accurately. Our renewed crew has completely matched up, we understand each other and are ready to compete with teams and drivers in the fight for the podium of the 2012 Dakar. The number of Team Astana fans has steadily increased with each passing day and we just have to be worthy and clinch a respectable result. "
Really today was such a difficult day. There was good navigation and very nice dunes, really big and difficult dunes – we like this. For us this was a normal stage. Everything was good today: good speed, good terrain. Everything was ok, the truck is good and this is much better. De Rooy is very fast. I don't know why today he went a bit slower. Maybe there is a problem with his truck, but normally De Rooy is much too fast, faster than me. One kilometre before the finish, De Rooy overtook me. It was a good day. 
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