In his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, Onkar Rai set a blistering pace from the start. He strengthened his position with a pair of quickest stage timings on the penultimate day.
Rai won by 4min 04.0sec after a carefully calculated approach to the final five stages on Sunday. He dedicated the victory to his brother Tejveer, who had crashed out earlier in the week.
“It’s incredible. I’m hoping he’s watching because this is for him,” Rai stated. “It was a long and difficult drive, and I am relieved to have the rally back.”
Karan Patel, driving a Ford Fiesta R5, was ecstatic to place second. Due to late check-ins, the 30-year-old was penalized 40 seconds.
Tundo’s rally had been eventful to say the least. The former Safari winner started as a favourite, but dropped over 7min when he crashed his Polo into a tree in SS4. He went on to claim multiple stage wins and was relieved to salvage a podium.
“A lot of challenges on this rally, with lots of problems on Friday. If we’d just been a bit more sensible, we would have been further up,” Tundo reflected.
