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USA

Desert Storm, Leg 3: Mishra, Santosh stay on top

Aabishek Mishra and CS Santosh continue to hold the lead in their respective categories on the conclusion of the third leg of Desert Storm on Wednesday.

Desert Storm Rally participant in action

Desert Storm Rally participant in action

Maruti Suzuki

CS Santosh, Suzuki RMX450Z
Desert Storm Rally participant in action
CS Santosh, Suzuki RMX450Z
Desert Storm Rally participant in action
CS Santosh, Suzuki RMX450Z
CS Santosh
Desert Storm Rally participant in action
Markus Pösendorfer
CS Santosh, Suzuki RMX450Z

Participants in the Xtreme category traversed through three special stages, spanning 156.54 km. This included a short night sprint tested their driving prowess under dark skies.

In the Xtreme category, runaway leader Mishra (along with co-driver PV Srinivas Murthy) stayed on top, despite being severely hampered by a power steering failure.

The Grand Vitara driver managed to set a competitive time of 2hr22m09s - including the fastest time in SS6 -, only losing two minutes to Team Maruti’s Suresh Rana, who was quickest in SS4 and SS5.

Amanpreet Ahluwalia struggled in the first and the third special stage of the day, allowing fourth-placed Niju Padia to close the gap further in the overall standings.

Jasmohan Singh moved up a position to fifth, while Harwinder Singh now drops outside of the top 10.

Santosh remains uncatchable in Moto

Riders in the Moto category only had to complete two stages with Santosh again the man to beat in leg three.

India’s sole Dakar finisher completed the SS5 and SS6 in 49m09s and 38m21s respectively - fastest of any rider - to extend his advantage to TVS Racing’s Aravind KP to just over 30 minutes.

Jes David holds on to the final podium spot, albeit someway behind the top two, with Sanjay Kumar overtaking Natraj A for the fourth spot.

Rene Steinhart, the leading rider from Team Austria, now trails in 12th place.

In the Xpore class stakes, Karthik Maruti and co-driver S Shankar Anand lead the table with a total penalty time of 4 minutes and 25 seconds.

Pratap is second on the list, five minutes adrift of Maruti, but ahead of Rajesh Chalan.

Xtreme Leg 3 Results: Top 10

Pos

Driver

SS4

SS5

SS6

Total

1

 Aabishek Mishra

38m26

1hr00m50s

44m14s

7hr00m02s

2

 Suresh Rana

37m56

59m15s

44m59

7hr12m25s

3

 Amanpreet Ahluwalia

44m30

1hr08m29s

51m09

7hr49m08s

4

 Niju Padia

42m55

1hr05m07s

48m32

8hr08m57s

5

 Jasmohan Singh

42m48

1hr08m40s

51m56

8hr13m42s

6

 Sanjay Agarwal

42m35

1hr19m45s

49m20

8hr19m00s

7

 Sanjiv Singh

1hr22m05s

1hr11m54s

55m32s

8hr33m13s

8

 Ranjiv Sally

46m46s

1hr17m49s

57m09

8hr37m39s

9

 Lt, Col. S.Bajaj

48m14s

1hr12m20s

54m57

8hr43m13s

10

 Puneet Jain

47m15s

1hr11m58s

53m54

8hr47m00s

Moto Leg 3 Results: Top 10

Pos

Rider

SS5

SS6

Total

1

 CS Santosh

49m09s

38m21s

5hr41m36s

2

 Aravind KP

55m22s

40m27s

6hr11m35s

3

 Jes David

54m53s

48m58s

6hr19m38s

4

 Sanjay Kumar

1hr00m22s

44m42s

6hr50m24s

5

 R Nataraj

1hr00m26s

45m28s

6hr57m36s

6

 Ashwini  Kataria

1hr13m31s

57m31s

7hr55m07s

7

 Tanveer Abdul Wahid

1hr15m45s

52m46s

8hr20m36s

8

 Ashish Raorane

1hr22m11s

1hr05m55s

8hr23m27s

9

 Virendra Maghela

1hr18m05s

59m29s

8hr40m03s

10

 Mohan Lal Sharma

1hr21m51s

1hr02m40s

8hr46m24s

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