Chandigarh's Sidhu, with his navigator PV Srinivasa Murthy, enjoyed a trouble-free run to lead the Xtreme category, followed by Delhi's Sandeep Sharma, driving a Maruti Gypsy.
In the two-wheeler category, Bangalore's CS Santosh, astride a Suzuki RMX450, continued to maintain his dominance over main rival and Raid de Himalaya champion Helmut Frauwallinger from Austria on a Yamaha WR 450F.
In Xplore category, which runs on the TSD (Time-Speed-Distance) format, Team Maruti Suzuki's Sanjay Takale (co-driver Mohd Mustafa), were perched on top, followed by Rajesh Chalana and Yogesh Gupta, driving an SX4 for Team Maruti Suzuki.
Nitin Yadav, co-driver Ravi Bansal, were third in the category driving a Tata Aria.