Hero Motorsports' Santosh wins 3rd leg of Desert Storm Rally

Hero MotoSports team had a spectacular day at the ongoing Desert Storm Rally as the team's sole rider C S Santosh won the third leg on Friday.

Santosh secured his first stage win at the 2019 Desert Storm.

The longest stage of the rally, with a 190 km run in the dunes of the Sam region, turned out to be a perfect setting for Santosh to find his rhythm back.

It was a precise performance with no mistakes. Santosh overcame a personal challenge en-route his victory as he saw through the stage where he crashed in the previous edition.

Friday's stage turned out to be chaotic, as the two loops and the re-join section made almost everyone lose their way a bit. The confusion added nearly 40 km of extra riding to the longest stage of the Rally.

The final leg of the Rally will see the riders make a dash for the last special stages covering 81 km in the Sam dunes, before the champions are crowned.

"Today was the longest stage of the rally of about 190kms to be done. Last year I had a big crash in this stage so I wanted to get it right this year. I rode with a good rhythm today and had no problems in the whole stage," Santosh said.

"Everyone did lose their way a bit around the re-join section due to a wrong indication in the route map, but it impacted everyone in the same way, so no harm done. Happy to cross the finish line today safely and now just one more day remains to bring the rally home.