Gaurav Gill Crowned APRC Champion For Third Time

Gaurav Gill, with his co-driver Stephane Prevot, has finally won the 2017 APRC championship to retain his title. Gill finished the competition with a tally of 174 points, 34 of which came in the last race alone. He was joined by his MRF Skoda teammate Ole Christian Veiby (co-driver Stig Skjarmoen), who finished second (race and championship) with 160 points, on the podium. The third spot at the podium was taken by Shafraz Junaid (co-driver Akhry) in a Volkswagen Polo. Junaid moved up to the third spot after Abhilash PG had to retire during the transport run due to mechanical issues. Till then, Abhilash had successfully completed all stages at the third place.

Gill raced away to victory in his Fabia R5, Skoda’s rally challenger. The Fabia R5 is powered by a 1.6-litre engine which generates 278PS of power and 420Nm of torque. It’s mated to a 5-speed sequential manual gearbox which sends power to all four wheels.

This season was solely dominated by team MRF Skoda as they managed to win all five rounds. Three of these were bagged by the Indian driver, while his Norwegian teammate took the other two. With the heroic performance of its drivers, MRF took the team championship crown, while Skoda bagged the Constructors’ championship.

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Expressing his feelings after the win, Gaurav Gill said, “Obviously, I am extremely pleased to win such a hard-fought championship. My satisfaction lies in the fact that I beat my team-mate OC (Veiby) who is a World Championship driver and even won the round in Poland. More importantly, this victory is for Indian motorsport and it showed that India is capable of competing with the best talent in the World.”

Talking about his future he further added, “I think I have done enough to show that I have the pace and ability to compete at the w-level as my first APRC title in 2013 was against my then team-mate Esapekka Lappi from Finland who today is a regular in the WRC with several wins. At the moment, I accept what is on offer without thinking too much about what is in store for me in my rallying career."

Gaurav Gill first entered the Indian motorsport scene back in 1999 at the National Motocross Championship. After trying his luck in the two-wheeler category, he moved to four-wheelers as he signed up for Raid-de-Himalaya in the year 2000. He won his first motorsport title in 2004 when he became the National Road Racing Champion after finishing second in 2003. In 2007, the Indian driver won the National Rally Championship and debuted at the Asia Pacific Rally Championship with Team MRF. Before winning the APRC in 2017, he had previously won the APRC championship in 2014 and 2016 as well.