Practically leading throughout the rally, a last stage puncture robs Karamjit Singh of victory in leg one of the Rally of India.

Flat out from the word go, Karamjit Singh charged to a comfortable lead in Leg One of the MRF India Rally enroute to victory only to be denied by a puncture on the last stage of the day.

The misfortune lost him almost two minutes as his nearest contender for this year's overall Asia Pacific Rally Championship crown Germany's Armin Kremer, stormed past him. Karamjit's only consolation was finishing second and collecting two of the three maximum leg points.

"There's still a chance for him to clinch the championship despite today's misfortunes. He'll really need to win tomorrow's leg," said PERT Team Manager Datuk Abdul Razak Dawood.

"It's heart breaking to see all the hard work do down the drain but that's the hard reality in rallying. We're quite lucky to salvage second and that it wasn't anything even more serious. At least, we still have a shot at the title."

The rally's rough terrain had also inflicted serious casualties, among them knocking out another championship contender Fumio Nutahara who had been quickest through the first stage but was thrown off the road in the third stage.

Also struggling with the conditions was championship leader Geoff Argyle who also suffered a puncture and later had to concede to a broken strut and clutch problems.