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
Maruti Suzuki
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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