Date:02/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/02/stories/2008110255931600.htm

Sport - Racing : Motor

Naren pulls out

Chennai: Team Sidvin’s Naren Kumar retired from the World Rally Championships’ Rally of Japan at Sapporo on Saturday, after stalling in stage 13 with a turbo failure. He had begun day 2 from eighth place. Naren will continue in the Super Rally format on Sunday.

Eighteen-year-old Russian Evgeny Novikov ended the day as he began it, in the lead of the PWRC category, with a total time of 2:34:1.3s. The most impressive performance of the day, however, came from Finnish driver Juho Hanninnen, who climbed from ninth to second place, 19.1 seconds behind Novikov. Toshi Arai, in second at the end of day 1, was pushed to third, separated from Hanninen by just 1.7 seconds.

In the WRC category, Mikko Hirvonen continues to lead with a total time of 2:21:31.8s, followed by Jari-Matti Latvala & Sebastien Loeb.