Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm 2018 - Day 3 Action

The third day of rallying through the dunes of Asu Tar and Turkon ki Basti saw some of the most high profile riders pull out of the competition owing to injuries or technical failures. Hero MotoSports Team Rally’s CS Santosh, for instance, suffered a neck injury following a crash. “There was a lot of dust around and the visibility was not good. I could not spot a sand bank that suddenly appeared and I crashed quite hard,” Santosh said. Though initial inspections by doctors at site have not shown any major injuries, the Hero MotoSports team has decided to withdraw Santosh from the rally and take him to Bangalore for further medical checkups as a precaution. “I am sorry and disappointed that I could not make it to the finish line for my team and the fans. But I promise that I will come back stronger, very soon," Santosh added.

CS Santosh is the second high profile rider to have retired from the event following TVS Racing rider Aishwarya Pissay. She had to retire at the end of the first leg after incurring a 100-hours penalty for stopping after encountering a headlight failure during the night stage. The spotlight in the Moto class is now on Sherco TVS’ Lorenzo Santolino and Ang’ata Racing’s Aaron Mare, with the latter in the lead for the class on the last day of rallying. Aaron has a lead of more than 10 minutes over the Spaniard, and with only 20km to cover in the last leg, his win seems all but sealed. Lorenzo was the fastest rider in the class on day three, but his pace seems to have come too late to help him secure the top spot.

The Xtreme Class also saw a major rejig in standings after defending champion Suresh Rana and co-driver PVS Murthy were forced to retire their Maruti Suzuki Motorsports backed Grand Vitara following an engine failure. Aabhishek Mishra takes the lead in the category now, and is touted to win the class as second-place Raj Singh Rathore is trailing 25 minutes behind. Maruti Suzuki Motorsporst will have at least one podium spot to themselves in the category, with Dharampal Jangra finishing third after a gruelling day of driving his Vitara Brezza.

The results at the end of Leg 3 are as follows:

Xtreme:
Aabhishek Mishra and V Venu Rameshkumar (06 :55 :38)
Raj Singh Rathore and Sagar Mallappa (07:21:55)
Dharampal Jangra and Harikrishnan (07:31:58)

Xplore:
Nipun Agrawal and Kabir Mansharamani (00 :02 :24)
Surendra Gopu and Hardeep Singh (00 :04 :56)
Vishal Jain and Rajeev Katula (00 :07 :09)

Endure:
Gurpinder Singh and Mrinmoy Saha (00:05:01)
Vivek Vikram Singh and Sabatullah Khan (00:06:41)
Ashish Budhia and Arindam Ghosh (00:11:01)

Moto:
Aaron Mare (05:29:39)
C.S Santosh (05:36:43)
Santolino Lorenzo (05:42:49)