Dmitry Sergeyevich Sotnikov (; born 29 May 1985) is a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

rally raid Rally raid is a type of off-road motorsport event competed with different types of vehicles. Along with shorter Baja (cross-country rally), baja rallies, rally raid constitutes cross-country rallying. Both the Fédération Internationale de l'Aut ...

driver who specializes in the truck category. He is a two-time

Dakar Rally The Dakar Rally () or simply "The Dakar" (), formerly known as the Paris–Dakar Rally (), is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). It is an off-road endurance event traversing terrain much tougher than convent ...

and a three-time

Silk Way Rally The Silk Way Rally () is an annual rally raid held in Russia and neighbouring countries. The first Silk Way Rally was run in 2009 from Kazan, Russia, to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. It is organised by the Silk Way Rally Association. The race is part ...

champion.

Career

Sotnikov made his

debut in the

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

edition, finishing in 4th position in the general classification; in the following edition he obtained the 5th position. In Dakar

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, he achieved his best performance at the time, finishing in second position behind his Kamaz Master teammate

Eduard Nikolaev Eduard Valentinovich Nikolaev (; born 21 August 1984) is a Russian rally raid driver, best known for winning the 2013 Dakar Rally, 2017 Dakar Rally, 2018 Dakar Rally and the 2019 Dakar Rally in the truck category for Kamaz. Career Nikolaev m ...

. His best performance on that event happened in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

and

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, when at the end he finished first with five stage wins in both events. Other events outside the Dakar Rally include his victories in the Silk Way Rally in the 2013, when Sotnikov as a driver of team maintenance vehicle was ahead of Anton Shibalov's main "battle" crew only by one minute, in the 2017, 2021 and 2022 editions.

Dakar Rally results

Winner

*''

'': 2021, 2022 *''

'': 2013, 2017, 2021, 2022 *''Gold of Kagan'': 2015 *''Africa Race'': 2013 *''Kazakhstan Rally'': 2019

References

External links

Profile on Dakar RallyProfile on Kamaz Master
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sotnikov, Dmitry 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Naberezhnye Chelny Russian rally drivers Off-road racing drivers Rally raid truck drivers Dakar Rally drivers Dakar Rally–winning drivers