After starting out in Astrakhan by the Caspian Sea, the weather turned chaotic as torrential rain played havoc with race crews looking to get the better of this Eurasian off-road race.

Organisers eventually had to step in to cut short the planned route between Elista and Astrakhan as the marathon stage was turned into a gruelling slog through the mud.

Sotnikov managed to dig deep to keep his truck defence on track from his teammate Andrey Karginov, with Airat Mardeev lying in third.

The 33-year-old said: “On stage four, we had to stop because of problems with the electrics and that’s when we saw we had a broken shock absorber and were losing water. We were able to quickly fix the shock absorber problem and then asked Andrey (Karginov) to stop and give us some water because it was very hot. We didn’t stop him for too long, though.”

In the car category, Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah has battled huge technical problems to stay on course for a podium place after losing four-wheel drive on his Toyota Hilux.

Two-time Dakar Rally champion and French co-driver Mathieu Baumel sits behind Saudi Arabian leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi’s Mini, who is looking to improve on his 2016 runner-up spot.

Al-Attiyah, 47, revealed: “We’ve had trouble shaking off this reoccurring problem with the rear differential. On a couple of stages it has stopped working after about 100 kilometres of racing. It’s not something you can repair when you’re out on the stage.”

The field still faces nearly 1,000 kilometres over the last two stages until they can take a well-earned rest, with the final stage finishing up in Moscow’s famous Red Square.