Karamjit powers to victory in leg two of the Rally of India to set the stage for a one-on-one fight with Germany's Armin Kremer for the 2003 Asia Pacific Rally Championship title on the third and final day.

Charging to keep his hopes of clinching a third successive overall Asia Pacific Rally Championship title alive, Karamjit Singh charged to win the second leg of the MRF India Rally.

Finishing second yesterday and collecting a maximum of three points in today's leg, the PETRONAS EON Racing Team driver currently holds a lead of 90 seconds ahead of championship contender Armin Kremer. He must win the rally outright and have Kremer finish at least third to clinch the title.

"He's practically set the stage for one of the most closely contested fights for the title in recent years," said PERT Team Manager Datuk Abdul Razak Dawood.

"I must say that we have been extremely lucky over the last two days with the misfortunes we've already suffered. We're hoping for the best now."

After losing two minutes to a puncture on the last stage of the first leg after practically leading the rally in his four-wheel drive turbo-charged Proton PERT, Karamjit was flat out on the second day taking 14 seconds off Kremer in the opening 9.5km Velhe 2 stage.

On the following 23km Panshet stage he slashed Kremer's advantage by another 54 seconds to regain the rally lead consolidating his position further with a 45 second advantage on stage eight.