West Coast, Australia: Never before in his Asia Pacific Rally Championship career had Gaurav Gill entered a race without a test drive, but when he was forced to do that here at the International Rally of Queensland, the experience turned out to be nightmarish. The MRF driver, who reached the venue only a day before the start of the rally owing to visa issues, crashed out on Saturday after the steering wheel of his Skoda Fabia S2000 snapped on the fourth stage while negotiating a slow left turn. It was a repeat for the reigning champion who was forced to withdraw midway last year too at the same course due to a technical snag. Such was the impact of the crash that his car swirled to the right toppling twice. Having won the first and third stage, Gill was looking good, but the result comes as a big jolt to the Indian as he needed a win in the Australian leg of the championship to move into a clear lead over teammate Jan Kopecky with the duo tied on 66 points.
The young Czech driver is now expected to surge ahead after an impressive show on Saturday where he won six of the 10 stages to finish on top of the leader-board. He leads second-placed Scott Pedder by +01:27:3. Kopecky added that he will look to maintain his lead on Sunday, but won’t go all out. “It won’t be wise to push hard tomorrow since we have already lost one car. I am happy to have a lead, but it is sad to see Gaurav crashing out since we were pushing each other for the spot,” he said.
While Gill was understandably disappointed, his co-driver Glenn Macneall confirmed that the car won’t be ready on Sunday, for the remaining six stages of the rally. “It is disappointing to finish this way, especially after winning the first and third stage. We hit a hole in the second stage and that created some impact. In the fourth stage,
when Gaurav took a left, the steering wheel snapped. The right part of the car is badly damaged and we won’t be able to have it back in a day.”
