More than 10,000 people made their way to the Amber Valley School here to witness the Super Special Stage of the Coffee Day India Rally, the concluding part of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship.
The object of their attention was Team MRF’s Gaurav Gill who has already clinched the title.
But the Indian had to play second fiddle to teammate Fabian Kreim, who was the fastest on the day.
Gill was last out of the blocks but his timing of 2minutes 18.5 seconds over the 2.12km circuit was just a shade under Kreim’s 2.17.8.
Earlier in the day Gill had brushed aside suggestions that he was under pressure to deliver in front of home fans at a media interaction.
“I am here to do my job,” he said. “This is going to be one of the slowest rallies of the year. The narrow plantation roads and twisty circuits are going to demand a lot.
“There are about a 1000 corners requiring a 1000 gear shifts.
“The co-driver has to be spot on with his calls since one corner flows into the next.
“So, I will be driving totally on his calls,” as he touched upon his plans over the next two days.
The results :
Provisional, Leg-1, Section-1: APRC: 1. Fabian Kreim / Frank Christian (Team MRF) (2 mins, 17.8secs); 2. Gaurav Gill / Glenn Macneall (Team MRF) (2:18.5); 3. Yuya Sumiyama / Takahiro Yasui (Cusco Racing) (2:23.4).
IRC: 1. Sanjay Takale / Noriko Takeshita (2:28.0); 2. Younus Illyas / Nitin Jacob (2:42.8); 3. Ritesh Guttedar / Sheeraz Ahmed (02:45.4).
INRC Overall: 1. Amittrajit Ghosh / Ashwin Naik (Mahindra Adventure) 2:37.9; 2. Arjun Rao / Satish Rajagopal (2:38.9); 3. Sunny Sidhu / Musa Sherif (Mahindra Adventure) (2:40.0).
INRC 2000: 1. Dean Mascarenhas / Shanmuga S.N. (2:40.8); 2. Karna Kadur / Nikhil Pai (Yokohama 2K) (2:42.6); 3. Rahul Kanthraj / Vivek Bhatt (Yokohama 2K) (2:42.7).
FMSCI Cup: 1. Vikram Gowda / Uday Kumar K.V. (2:49.5); 2. Michu Ganapathy S.C. / Venu Ramesh Kumar (2:52.8); 3. Fabid Ahmer / Arjun Dheerendra (2:55.6) .
