India's top rally driver Gaurav Gill cruised to a comfortable win in the Rally of New Caledonia, the second round of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship here today.
Gill's co-driver was Glen Macneall.
With a comfortable overnight lead of 1min 56.1sec, the Team MRF Skoda driver claimed the first win of the 2015 season with a total time of 2hr 29min 16.4sec after 16 stages over a total competitive distance of 253 km.
Gill finished 39.6 seconds ahead of this team-mate Pontus Tidemand (co-driver Emil Axelsson), who clocked a total time of 2hr 29min 56.0sec.
On the concluding day of the Rally of New Caledonia, Tidemand won all the seven tests to cut into Gill's overall lead, but the 2013 APRC champion had banked enough time on the second day to remain ahead of the former Junior World Rally Champion to the finish.
Local driver, Jean-Louis Leyraud (co-driver Scott Beckwith) finished in third place with a time of 2hr 35min 39.6sec completing a podium lockout by Team MRF Skoda drivers.
While Tidemand aimed to bag the maximum number of fastest stage times to collect bonus points after suffering a setback on the third stage following a puncture yesterday, Gill eschewed all risks and chose to look at the bigger picture of an outright win -- his third in the Rally of New Caledonia since his APRC debut in the same event in 2007.
Though Tidemand won 13 of 16 stages compared to Gill's fastest times in three stages, the 2 minute advantage in favour of the Indian driver on the third stage proved decisive in the end.
"Right from the start of the day our plan was to eliminate any risk and keep Pontus in sight. The stages were very difficult and extremely slippery. It was easy to make mistakes and lose the rally. We had a lot of pace left in the car, but chose to cut back and aim for an overall win. After the initial problems before the shakedown, it turned out to be a perfect weekend for us," said Gill.
The victory in New Caledonia is even more significant for the Indian driver since it comes in the same week of being nominated for the prestigious Arjuna Awards by the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India.
