Coimbatore: Ace Indian rallyist Gaurav Gill combined with co-driver Musa Sherif to win the MRF Rally of Coimbatore as Team Mahindra enjoyed a 1-2 finish in round 2 of the MRF FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship, here.
Gill and Sherif romped home to victories in each of the stages over the weekend to outclass the field.
He needed 1:14:30.1 to complete the five stages, winning the round with a handsome margin of 1 min 1.1 sec.
His Mahindra teammate Amittrajit, with co-driver Ashwin Naik, was equally sharp all through the rally, not yielding the second position even once. He kept pace with Gill too, finishing just 10-15 seconds off him in almost all the stages.
“I am happy that we made it 2 out of 2. It is a great show by the team that allowed us to be on the attack all through the weekend. I am very pleased with my performance. I was quick all through,” Gill said.
FMSCI President Akbar Ebrahim claimed the third position in the INRC 1 category. The 2016 INRC champion, Karna Kadur (with Nikhil V Pai), had to settle for the overall third position as all his efforts to upstage the leaders proved to be futile.
He managed to claim the INRC 2 category though, making it a 1-2 for Team Arka Motorsports. His teammate Rahul Kanthraj (with Vivek Y Bhatt) took the second place while Phalghuna Urs (with Srikanth Gowda; Snap Racing) claimed the third place.
The INRC 3 category too didn’t see any change on the leaderboard, with Aroor Vikram Rao (with Anand Somayya; Falkon Motorsports) completing an easy win. Suhem Kabeer (Jeevarathinam; Team Champions) and Chetan Shivram (with Rupesh Koley) clung on to the second and third positions on the podium with their smart driving.
Defending INRC 3 champion Dean Mascarenhas, who failed to finish the second stage on Day 1 and slid to the bottom of the table, made a valiant fightback on Day 2.
He on SS5 and SS6 in his category, but that was only good enough to take him to the sixth place.