Rana wins 2012 Desert Storm as Urs finishes third

Suresh Rana held on to win the 10th Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm in his battered Gypsy by 20 minutes and 14 seconds over Gaurav Chiripal's Vitara.

Suresh Rana held on to win the 10th Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm in his battered Gypsy by 20 minutes and 14 seconds over Gaurav Chiripal's Vitara. Lohit Urs managed to place his Mahindra XUV 500 on the podium as he finished 20min 43sec behind Chiripal.

Suresh-Rana-s-rattling-and-battered-Gypsy-held-off-Gaurav-Chiripal-s-Vitara-and-Lohit-Urs-XUV-500--HT-Photo-Vinayak-Pande

The top five was rounded out by the Gypsies of Abhishek Mishra and Rana's Team Thunderbolt teammate Harpreet Singh Bawa.

The final results of the rally were thrown in doubt after a mini-controversy with Chiripal's Vitara, which had to be jump started from parc ferme after his car's starter motor failed to start. There were talks of a protest against Chiripal as there was talk that this constituted repair work on the car, which is forbidden in parc ferme.

The moto/quad section of the rally was won by Raj Singh Rathore on his Polaris RZR 800. He was followed by R, Natraj who was nearly 42 minutes behind. Natraj was, in turn ahead of Pramod Joshua, Virendra R Vaghela and Kaustubh Machhe.

The event finished after over 800 km of special stages held between Sardarshahar in Rajasthan to Seekra in Gujarat.

(The writer's trip has been sponsored by Maruti-Suzuki)