Santolino Lorenzo of TVS Racing might have finished the fastest in the three stages of the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm, here, on Thursday, but that will not be enough for him to win the Moto Group A category title.
On the final day--which is a short stretch of 20 km--it would be difficult for Lorenzo, who trails leader Aaron Mare of Angata Racing by five minutes. “It will be tough for me on Friday. If everything goes smoothly, Aaron will win it,” he said.
The 31-year-old Spaniard completed the sixth stage in one hour two minutes and two seconds (1 hr:02.02) and the seventh (00:43.04) and the eighth (00:21.48) for an overall time of 7 hr: 49.43 which is nearly five minutes behind leader Aaron Mare, whose overall time stood at 7:44.22. In a further blow for TVS Racing, Tanveer Abdul Wahid, who was in the fifth position overall on Wednesday, retired midway due to technical reasons.
READ: Desert Storm 2018: Aabhishek & Venu on the right track
Lorenzo was in his peak form, driving at an average speed of 100 Km per hour. He said the seventh and eighth stages were pretty difficult as he had to slow down for fear of animals. Lorenzo, who was critical of the night stage the other day, said he had lost 20 minutes because of it and that proved to be costly in the end.
Initially, the fourth leg was supposed to have four stages but was eventually reduced to three. In fact, the distance of the ninth stage was also reduced to 30 km from 92.
B. Selvaraj, Manager, TVS Racing, chose to term the performance for his team as a learning experience. “It was not disappointing, but a learning curve for us. Our riders will definitely get better with the experience,” he said.
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