Desert Storm, Leg 4: Mishra's lead truncated, Santosh still dominates

Participants blazed through a single special stage (SS7) on Wednesday, traversing between Kuchri to Bandha for a total timed distance of 89.78 km.

Nine-time Raid de Himalaya winner Suresh Rana (co-driver Ashwin Naik) went the quickest in the Xtreme category, setting a time of 1hr16m36s.

Rana, who hails from Manali, has now closed the gap to Aabhishek Mishra to just over 10 minutes in the overall standings with two legs still remaining.

Mishra, who has led the standings from the start, was hindered by a power failure yesterday. During these two days, his advantage has been cut short by nearly four minutes.

Meanwhile, Amanpreet Ahulwalia and Niju Padia continue to hold third and fourth position respectively, while Sanjav Agarwal has now returned inside the top five.

Agarwal, who has been losing time since finishing fourth on the opening leg, was able to claw back positions after setting a time of 1hr27m07s in SS7.

Santosh dominates Moto class

Unsurprisingly, runaway leader Santosh was the quickest rider in the Moto class, setting a time of 1hr6m34s in leg 4.

Behind, 2015 Raid de Himalaya winner Aravind KP, who has been running in second position since day two, appeared to struggle, losing 14 minutes to Santosh in a single leg.

Third-placed Sanjay Kumar and fellow TVS rider R Nataraj - who was second quickest in SS7 - have closed the gap to Aravind as a result, but still find themselves over 30 minutes adrift in the overall standings.

Jes David, who was second on the opening day, has dropped to fifth position after losing an hour to the leaders in SS7.

Meanwhile, Team Austria’s Rene Steinhart has steadily returned to the top 10 after setting the fifth fastest time of the day.

In the Xplore category, Pratak has jumped Karthik Maruti to take the top spot as Rajesh Chalan stays in third place.

Xtreme Leg 4 Results: Top 10  

Moto Leg 4 Results: Top 10