The tenth edition of the Maruti-Suzuki Desert Storm was ceremonially flagged off from Vasant Kunj here today. The competitive stages of the 2,200 km rally will start from Sardarshahar in Rajasthan and conclude in Jaipur during its six-day duration (18-23 February). Two-hundred and sixty-three competitors will participate in the rally out of which 85 are in the Xtreme category (52 cars, 33 motorcycles and quads) that will require them to cover the timed stages as fast as possible.

The field in the Xtreme cars section includes last year's winner Suresh Rana, former winner Sunny Siddhu, former Indian national rally champion Gaurav Gill, multiple Indian national rally winner Lohit Urs and former Production World Rally champion Karamjit Singh.

Historic Daytona 500 pole for patrick
new delhi: Danica Patrick topped qualifying for the Daytona 500 on Sunday to become the first woman to earn pole position for one of the hugely popular NASCAR stock car racing's elite events. A day after she notched the fastest overall practice lap, Patrick lapped the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway in 45.817sec, averaging 316.062 kmh.