Flat tyre puts Naren behind

V R Naren Kumar of India suffered a setback in his quest for a fourth successive victory in the Asian Zone rally championship, conceding a slender lead to teammate Arjun Balu after the first six stages of the Changchun rally in Changchun, China, on Tuesday.

Naren of the MRF team, who had established a comfortable lead over his rivals till the fourth stage, had to drive with a flat tyre for nearly eight kilometres in the fifth stage, which resulted in a loss of 1 minute 17 seconds and put him in the second position after the first day's action.

Naren finished the 70.2 km special stage sector with a timing of 47:25 minutes conceding a lead of 48.4 secs to compatriot Arjun Balu while Zhuhai Wei of China occupied the third place with a timing of 48:25 minutes.

Driving a Honda Civic, Naren began well and had taken a lead of over 40 secs after the fourth stage before the flat tyre pushed him to the sixth position in the fifth stage timings.

He, however, made a comeback of sorts to narrow down the lead by finishing the fifth in the last stage with a timing of 8:41 sec.

"Its really bad luck. The road was very rough at some places and we hit quite a few sharp stones. Unfortunately, I got a puncture," a disappointed Naren said after the day's action.

"I was quite comfortably placed till the fourth stage. I had the option of changing the tyre but I decided to carry on with a flat tyre so that the timing is not affected too much," he explained.

Naren, who has already assured himself of the title with an unbeatable 46 points in the Asian Zone Championship, will seek to make amends on the second day tomorrow and fight it out with his teammate Balu for the honour.

Balu, who failed to complete the races in the first two rallies in Coimbatore and Indonesia, put up a consistent show in all the six special stages to take the top position with a timing of 47:25 minutes.

"The stages are very rough and there are big bumps. You have to drive with some care as its very easy to do damage to your car in such terrain," Balu said. "As long as I am ahead of the other competitors I am happy. There is no point stretching too much and doing something silly.

"Tomorrow will be very important. The conditions will be more or less similar but the distance will be more. It will give us an opportunity to make up."

China's Zhuhai Wei, driving a FAW Volkswagen Jetta GTX put up a decent show to take the third place with consistent timings while the Russian entrant Diamantid Aristotel took the fifth position with a timing of 49:38 minutes.

The six special stages on Wednesday would cover a total distance of 120 kms.

Eighteen cars were flagged off from the Changchun International Conference Centre but three of them dropped out due to mechanial problems.