Defending champion Suresh Rana of Team Maruti finished the opening day of the Rally Xtreme event in first place at the 11th Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm.
Top seed Gaurav Gill incurred a heavy time penalty after his Mahindra XUV 500 suffered mechanical problems. Facing a two-hour sanction, Gill will start an hour behind the other drivers on day two.
However, Gill was not the only one to face trouble in the first stage as 16 of the 52 participating teams in this category have already dropped out of the competition, which began at Sardarshahar on Monday night.
Team Maruti, though, continued its good show in the Ndure category too, which follows the same route as the Xtreme but a different format, as Somdev Chand and K. Prasad led the race after the first day.
Elsewhere, Raj Singh Rathore of Team Polaris is leading in the Quad category.
