India’s top rallyist Gaurav Gill came up with an electrifying drive to put himself in pole position for the championship before an unfortunate technical error saw the Team MRF driver retire in the fourth stage on the second day of Asia Pacific Rally Championship Malaysia Rally, here on Saturday.
The formidable MRF, in a strong position to seize the championship, were dealt another blow as their Finnish driver and current leader Esapekka Lappi’s hopes went up in smoke after the morning session owing to an engine failure. A disappointed Lappi pulled out of the rally and will focus on the next leg in Hokkaido, Japan.
On a not-so-great day for the rallyists, New Zealand’s Michael Young was the only one to finish the seven stages in his Toyota Vitz-RS after having fallen back by more than 7 minutes and 37.7 seconds to Gill earlier.
But the talk of the circuit was the 31-year-old Gill’s stunning performance on Stage Two, the first of the morning, which saw the Indian rack up a superb 1minute, 0.7 seconds lead over his compatriot and nearest rival, Lappi. Scorching through the 26.32 km terrain in his Skoda Fabia S2000, Gill and co-driver Glenn Macneall touched base in 22.57.7 seconds ahead of Lappi (co-driver Janne Ferm) who clocked 23 minute and 58.4 seconds.
Maintaining the tempo in the third, Gill increased the lead by another 0.2 seconds before disaster struck him in the fourth. Unable to negotiate a sharp turn owing to a fault in the pace notes, Gill went off the road causing damage to the radiator.
“Our pace note had an error on the third stage. During recon, we drove in a convoy and our pace note didn’t register correctly on a particular turn. I went off the road and drove over the embankment leading to radiator damage,” said Gill, who opted not to drive after that incident.
“But I will definitely be driving tomorrow,” added Gill, who is 6.5 points off the championship lead from Lappi will resume battle on the final day in a bid to go past Pune privateer Sanjay Takale.