Three-time APRC champion Gaurav Gill (Musa Sherif) of Team Mahindra Adventure underlined his class yet again with a clever drive on a tough tarmac on the penultimate day of the Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare '18 here on Thursday.
The broken tarmac section and the pebble-strewn path made life miserable for many. But, Gill has been a master of all terrains. Give him a rough road and he will come out smooth and on a silken smooth surface, the Delhi star will play it rough and tough.
So, it was not surprising to see Gill coming out clean even as teammate Amittrajit Ghosh (Ashwin Naik) had a DNF to his name.
‘Rougher’
“It was a totally different surface and much rougher than the other day. The speeds were pretty high. We started off very fast and increased the pace further in the next two stages,” said Gill, who clocked the fastest in two of the three stages.
“We also had a different set-up and different tyres keeping in mind the overnight rains,” he added.
He felt sad for Ghosh who could not complete the final stage of the day. “Bad luck for Amit who drove very well, but overall it was a great team combination.”
Splendid form
Mahendra Adventure's Philippos Mathai (PVS Murthy), Phil as he is called, continued his splendid form and may not have a challenge coming his way to rob him of second position on the final day slated (Friday).
Ghosh did well for most part and was well placed to finish third before a damage to his fuel coupler knocked him out of the reckoning.
Team Maruti Suzuki's Samrat Yadav (Karan Aukta) capitalised on that to finish third for the day.
“It was not my rally, I must say. I had three flats in three days and today we mastered the stages and in a strong position to finish third, but we ended up this way just three kilometres from the finish line,” said Ghosh.
