Naveen Puligilla and Musa Sherif secure WRC3 podium at Rally del Paraguay

Indian rally duo Naveen Puligilla and Musa Sherif secured their third consecutive WRC3 podium with a fighting third-place finish at Rally del Paraguay. Despite an early setback and a 15-minute penalty, they staged a strong comeback to finish on the podium.,

Hyderabad: History-making Indian rally duo Naveen Puligilla and co-driver Musa Sherif staged a remarkable comeback to secure a fighting third-place finish in WRC3 at Rally del Paraguay, the 11th round of the FIA World Rally Championship, which concluded on Sunday.

The result marked a remarkable hat-trick of WRC3 podium finishes for the Duran Racing duo. They finished second at the season-ending Rally Saudi Arabia in November 2025, where Naveen became the first Indian driver to secure a WRC class podium and, alongside Musa, the first all-Indian driver-co-driver combination to achieve the feat. In March 2026, the duo followed it up with a third-place finish at the Safari Rally Kenya.

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Competing in their second WRC rally of the season, Hyderabad’s Naveen and experienced co-driver Musa Sherif of Kasaragod drove a Ford Fiesta Rally3 through 22 demanding red-gravel Special Stages covering 357.64 km. They completed the rally in 5 hours, 10 minutes and 54.9 seconds, including penalty times. Of the 58 entries across all classes, only 44 cars finished.

The rally appeared to take a difficult turn for the Indian pair after they went off the road in Special Stage 3 on Friday, forcing them to miss six stages and incur penalties. However, Naveen and Musa mounted a determined recovery on Saturday, steadily climbing the WRC3 classification with a series of competitive stage times from SS10 onwards.

Despite receiving a further 15-minute penalty following a turbo change, the duo continued to push. Naveen delivered a blistering performance in the short SS20 on Sunday before closing the rally strongly with a second-place finish in WRC3 on the final Power Stage, SS22. They finished behind WRC3 winners Nataniel Bruun of Bolivia and co-driver Mario Javier.

“We are absolutely thrilled with this result. Despite the ups and downs, we stayed focused and fought till the very end. To stand on the podium holding the Indian flag is a very proud moment,” said Naveen, who is supported by Ashya Group and Yula Globus.

Musa Sherif, an eight-time Indian National Rally co-driver champion with 35 years of experience and more than 350 rallies to his credit, said, “Each rally has tested us differently – from the deserts of Saudi Arabia to the unforgiving terrain of Kenya and now the soft gravel of Paraguay. To achieve three podiums in a row at this level is something very special.”

Naveen made his international rally debut in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship in New Zealand in 2024 and stepped onto the WRC stage alongside Musa at Rally Kenya in 2025. The duo, also backed by Sri Chaitanya Educational Institutions and Samveer Group, will now turn their attention to Rally Chile, the 12th round of the FIA World Rally Championship, scheduled from September 10 to 13, 2026.