India’s Gaurav Gill (co-driver Stephane Precot) went full throttle at the start and eased a bit midway through to take the day’s honours in the Coffee Day India Rally 2017 — the final round of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship here on Saturday.
The other day quite a few rally men felt the Delhi-based star was under some pressure fighting for the title but he proved them wrong with his majestic driving skills in almost every other stage of the day.
Norway’s Ole Christian Veiby (Stig Skjarmoen), his nearest rival and Team MRF mate, was also up for the big challenge.
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He started in a similar fashion but gearbox issues messed up the morning for him.
That did not matter for Gill. He went about doing his job nicely and safely to finish the day on strong note. “There was no need for us to push 100%. We just controlled our speed and only focused on getting the car back home. This rally is so difficult that we had to do simply that,” said Gill,
Veiby was disappointed but did not let that affect him.
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“We lost some minutes but the game is still not over,” he said.
In the fourth round of the MRF FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship that was run concurrently, Karna Kadur and co-driver Nikhil V Pai in a Volkswagen Polo emerged overall winners ahead of Dean Mascarenhas (Shruptha Padival) and Arjun Rao (Satish Rajagopal).
The results (provisional): FIA APRC: 1. Gaurav Gill & Stephane Prevot (Team MRF), 2. P.G. Abhilash & Srikant Gowda (Team R3A PGA Motorsports), 3. Ole Christian Veiby & Stig Rune Skjarmoen (Team MRF). MRF FMSCI INRC: (Overall placing): 1. Karna Kadur & Nikhil V. Pai; 2. Dean Mascarenhas & Shruptha Padival; 3. Arjun Rao & Satish Rajagopal (VW Polo R2).