Bikaner, Feb 26 (IANS) Overnight leader Harpreet Singh Bawa maintained his top position in the Xtreme category as the Maruti Suzuki 9th Desert Storm Rally entered its home stretch here.

Bawa (with co-driver Parminder), enjoyed a 10-minute lead over Rai Virendra Singh (with co-driver Gunpreet) who in turn was seven minutes ahead of third placed Sunny Sidhi (with co-driver Rohit Michael) at the end of the third day Friday of the week-long rally that covers 3,500 km and concludes in Delhi Sunday morning.

There was hectic jockeying for positions up and down the field, but with the terrain having a final say in the outcome, the competitors had a trying time in difficult going.

The results (after Leg 3):

Xtreme: Harpreet Singh Bawa/Parminder (7 hrs, 24 mins, 01 sec); Rai Virendra Singh/Gunpreet 2 (7:34:06); Sunny Sidhu/Rohit Michael 3 (7:41:10).

Ndure: Sanjay Takale/Rahul Sancheti (02:39:02); Amol Asatosker/Chidananda Murthy (03:24); S.K. Prasad/Shankar Anand (03:31).

XPlore: Mukul Budhia/Amit Patel 1 (03.43.2); Tejinder Singh/G. Raja Natarajan 2 (04.04.3); Rakesh Bhatia/Jaideep Lunilal (09.54).

Moto: Bhalla Ram Suthar 1 (05:38.22); Jes David 2 (05:40.16); R. Nataraj 3 (05:54.12).