Amitrajit races away with overall title

In a late development on Saturday night, Ghosh gained 20 precious seconds following his successful plea for grace time in view of being held up by a slower car through much of Special Stage-8.

The Stewards’ decision dislodged Rao from his provisional standing to second place, 14 seconds behind leader Ghosh.

On Sunday morning when the final two Stages were run, Ghosh lost 19 seconds to Rao on SS-9, but the Red Rooster driver made 18 seconds on the MRF competitor to regain his overnight lead. The pair clocked identical timing in the concluding Spectator Special Stage.

However, Team MRF intended to protest the 20-second grace time to Ghosh and if the Stewards uphold the protest, then it is likely that Rao might yet be declared champion.

Finishing third was Delhi’s Sandeep Sharma (co-driver Arjun Chopra) in a Maruti Gypsy.

Results (provisional): Overall: Amittrajit Ghosh/ Ashwin Naik (Red Rooster Racing, Cedia N+) 2:10:45, 1; Arjun Aroor Rao/ Satish Rajagopal (Team MRF, Cedia N+) 2:10:58, 2; Sandeep Sharma/ Arjun Chopra (Team Thunderbolt, Maruti Gypsy) 2:16:12, 3.

2000cc Class (Cedia N+): Ghosh/ Naik 1; Rao/ Rajagopal 1; Arjun Balu/Sujith Kumar (Team MRF) 2:18:08, 3.

1600cc (Maruti Baleno): Vishal GA/ Robinson Rajkumar 2:21:58, 1; Sujay S/ Varun S 2:22:42, 2; Rahul Kantharaj/ Vivek Bhatt 2:26:48, 3.

1400cc (MPFI Esteem): Babu/ Thomas, 1; Amith Anand/ Prakash Rodrigues 2:20:23, 2; Francis Jose/ Manoj M (DDL Sports) 2:22:08, 3.

Rally Star Cup (Carbureted Esteem): Kadur/ Ghosh, 1; Venkatapathy/ Santosh Kumar S, 2; CG Balaram/ CG Raghuram 2:18:17, 3.

Maruti Gypsy: Sharma/ Chopra, 1; Khushwant Randhawa/ Harminder S Kaler 2:22:04, 2; Vijay Jose/ Pradeep Nagabhushan 2:36:16, 3.