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Arunachal INRC: Gill moves closer to title with win

Mahindra’s Gaurav Gill claimed an easy win in the Rally of Arunachal to inch a step closer to his fifth Indian National Rally Championship title.

Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif, XUV 500, Team Mahindra Adventure

Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif, XUV 500, Team Mahindra Adventure

RRPM

Gill was a class apart in the penultimate round of the season, winning four of the six stages - including the tricky night stages on Friday - to finish the rally with a time of 58m50.4s.

Gill, who drives a factory-prepared XUV500 and is ably assisted by co-driver Musa Sherif, took the top honours by 31.4s from Dean Mascarenhas (co-driver Shruptha Padival), who won the remaining two stages in a Volkswagen Polo.

Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) finished another 11.8s adrift of the leading duo in third to make it two Mahindra drivers on the podium.

"They were the fastest and most technical stages that I have seen in the INRC in many, many years," Gill said. "We had a great car, wonderful setup and tyres and we really enjoyed this win," he added.

Defending champion Karna Kudur and Arjun Rao both retired from the rally in the first stage itself, dealting a severe blow to their title hopes.

Meanwhile, Younus Ilyas was the highest classified INRC 2 driver in fourth position (overall), while the aforementioned Mascarenhas was the top INRC 3 runner.

Gill well ahead in title race

With just the Rally of Bangalore to run, Gill leads the standings with 75 points on board, 13 clear of nearest challenger Mascarenhas.

The New Delhi-born star’s lead is particularly impressive considering he missed the Chikmagalur round to take part in the concurrent APRC rally.

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