Behind him, there was a stiff competition with Sujay S (co-driver Varun S) in second place with 48:06, just four seconds ahead of Philippos Mathai (co-driver Chandrasekar M.) who in turn has a mere seven seconds to spare to fourth placed Yogeshwar Gill (co-driver Sajan Preet).

The positions could yet change as veteran Rahul Kanthraj (co-driver Vivek Bhatt) is lurking in fifth spot with 48:20. With another six Special Stages to be run Saturday, the class honours are still wide open.

Vikram Devadasen (co-driver Nikhil Pai) led the 1400cc class while Karna Kadur (co-driver Somolitha Ghosh), and Sandeep Sharma (co-driver Anmol Rampal) of Team Thunderbolt were leading in the Rally Star Cup and Gypsy classes, respectively.

Provisional, unaudited results after Leg 1:

Overall/2000cc: Arjun Balu/Sujith Kumar (Team MRF, Cedia N+) 1 (42mins, 04secs); Gaurav Gill/Moosa Sherif (Team MRF, Cedia N+) 2 (44:59); Aroor Arjun Rao/Satish Rajagopal (Team MRF, Cedia N+) 3 (45:05).

1600cc (Baleno): Joseph C/Royce 1 (47:11); Sujay/Bharath 2 (48:06); Philippos Mathai/Chandrasekar 3 (48:10).

1400cc (Esteem): Vikram Devadasen/Nikhil Pai 1 (46:39); Shailendra Hegde/Sheraz Ahmed 2 (47:24); Deepak Paul Chinnappa/Srikarunya 3 (47:51).

Rally Star Cup (Carbureted Esteem): Karna Kadur/Somolitha Ghosh 1 (48:29); Phalguna Urs/Anoop Kumar 2 (49:01); Raghuram CG/Balram CG 3 (50:31).

Gypsy: Sandeep Sharma/Anmol Rampal 1 (50:27); Anil Wadia/Prajwal Pai 2 (51:07); Shafeeq-ur Rehman/Naveen YG 3 (52:51).