Gaurav Gill places third by the end of day one of the Otago Rally

India’s motorsport legend Gaurav Gill is again making waves in the world of rallying. Competing in New Zealand’s Otago Rally, Gill won three out of the eight stages on day one. Despite an error in stage five which saw him lose 15 seconds, Gill trails the overall leader Jack Hawkeswood by just over 30 seconds. Jack’s countryman Robbie Stokes is in second place with an 11-second gap between hima and Gill.

Gill is piloting 2022 APRC champion and 10-time Otago Rally winner Haydon Paddon’s Hyundai i20 N Rally2 car and has New- Zealand-based Jared Hudson as his co-driver. 

The Arjuna awardee said, “It has been a very unique experience; the super-fast stages are so distinct and varied from one another that I would describe them as extremely fast. I have never driven this fast before. We had a pretty good start in the morning stages, and now we're trying to become better at maintaining our rhythm on the trickier parts. We are up against cars more powerful than ours. That makes a difference, and the settings are ideal for them. We are happy with our performance today and will try to replicate the same tomorrow, ensuring a podium finish.”

The Otago Rally is amongst the most historic rally events in the world with regular occurrence on the rally stage since its inception in 1976. The Rally includes fast-flowing public roads as well as blind brows and gravel sections. This year over 117 cars are participating and will race over 16 special stages. On Sunday, the competitors raced over 144 kilometres with another 130 kilometres left for Sunday.