Gaurav Gill continued his victory spree in Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, winning his fourth successive rally in succession in Japan.Having dominated the first leg with eight stage wins, Gill (co-driver Stephane Prevot) arrived on Sunday with a healthy 1m50.06s lead in hand.
But the Indian wasn’t ready to rest on his laurels, topping the first four stages of the day in the Skoda to further extend his advantage at the top of the table.
Although Gill lost out to MRF Teammate Fabian Kreim (co-driver Frank Christian) in the final three stages, he went on to take a comfortable win with a total time of 2hr00m23.9s.
Kreim, who was put on the backfoot due to a puncture yesterday, enjoyed a trouble-free Leg 2, winning the last three stages to finish second, 1m50.06s adrift of Gill.
Michael Young (co-driver Malcolm Read) once again took the tag of best of the rest, picking up the final spot on the podium in the Subaru with a time of 2hr04m18.3s.
Hitoshi Takayama (co-driver Hideki Takeyabu) finished as the lead Japanese driver in fourth, while Eiichi Iwashita (co-driver Akihiko Takahashi) in the lead Mitsubishi moved up one position to finish fifth.
Fuyuhiko Takahashi (co-driver Mitsuo Nakamura) was classified sixth, while Hiroshi Hoshino (co-driver Tsuyoshi Kobayashi) jumped from 10th to seventh on the final day.
Veteran Indian rally driver Sanjay Takle (co-driver Noriko Takeshita) took the eighth spot. Waturo Aono (co-driver Yuko Mitsukuri) was ninth and the lone Suzuki of Kimito Kondo (co-driver Yoshihiro Kondo) in 10th.