Defending champion Aabhishek Mishra led the 2019 Desert Storm on Day 1 blazing through the tough terrains and soaring heat of Rajasthan. The Team Sparky's Garage driver along with co-driver Srikanth Gowda managed to bag the lead from Day 1 leader Sunny Sidhu in the Xtreme Category with a total time of 3h22m46s after the morning stage. Team Mahindra driver Sidhu with co-driver Ashwin Naik had a dominant run on Day 1, but car troubles pushed them to the middle of the pack after Special Stage 4 (SS4) by Thursday evening.
Car troubles have pushed Sunny Sidhu to the middle of the order, while teammate Gaurav Gill climbed up to P2
Meanwhile, WRC driver Gaurav Gill with co-driver Musa Sherif managed to slot into second after trailing Mahindra teammate Sidhu for most of Day 1. While the rallyist finish the first leg in fourth place, he managed to register a brilliant time of 1h10m11s in SS4, putting out a total time of 3h25m46s, just three minutes off the race leader. Coming in third was Samrat Yadav with co-driver Kunal Kashyap, holding on to the position.
The 41 km SS 1 for Moto and Extreme categories started from Noorsar village in Bikaner district while the 46 km SS 2 took off from Rajasar village. The Extreme drivers even took part in the night stage, a 41 km stretch starting from Kelan village.
CS Santosh makes a comeback to rallying after his injury at Dakar earlier this year
In the Moto Category, TVS Racing's Adrien Metge managed to push a brilliant time leading the charge. The racer holds a total time of 2h03m34s after SS1 and SS2 on Wednesday and SS4 on Thursday. Chasing the Frenchman was India's very own CS Santosh of Hero Motosports Team Rally with a total time of 2h11m20s. The Desert Storm marks Santosh's first rally since his injury during Dakar this year. TVS' Abdul Wahid Tanveer is now placed third in the rally and finish the leg 5m08s behind the leader. With an onslaught of riders, TVS' Nataraj sits in P4, while Rajendra RE had a good run and finished the stage at P5. Aishwarya Pissay managed to post a good run on the RTR 450 through the sandy terrain but received a 20-minute penalty, which puts her at P23. In Group B, TVS Racing's Sachin stands at P2, while Imran has retired due to technical issues.
In the Ndure or endurance category, it was Ankur Chauhan with co-driver Prakash M finish the day in the lead a cumulative penalty of 13m38s after eight sections. Chauhan was followed by Deepak Sachdeva with co-driver Japjyot Singh Dhingra and Captain Abhilash Singh with co-driver Aashish Agarwal in second and third place respectively.
The first day of the 2019 Desert Storm didn't go incident free and saw eight participants in the Moto and four in the Xtreme category retire amidst the scorching temperatures. A major incident was averted as Sanjay Agarwal with co-driver Smitha N had their rally-prepped Maruti Suzuki Vitara go up in flames a little after the start. While no one was hurt, the SUV was completely destroyed in what was concluded as heating and electrical issues.
The next leg of the rally will see the participants complete 116 km of special stages that will start in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, having a covered a transport section of 116 km.
