APRC 2016: Gaurav Gill cruises to fourth straight win of the season at Rally Hokkaido

Gaurav Gill of Team MRF scored his fourth consecutive win in the 2016 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship as he cruised to victory in the Rally Hokkaido here on Sunday.

Having earlier won in New Zealand, Australia and China, Gill, the 2013 APRC champion with a new co-driver in Belgium's Stephane Prevot (formerly a co-driver to WRC podium finisher and 2012 APRC champ Chris Atkinson), came up with another near-flawless drive in the MRF Skoda Fabia R5 to win by one minute, 50.6 seconds over his team-mate, Germany’s Fabian Kreim who finished ahead of Cusco Racing’s Michael Young.

Enjoying an overnight lead of almost a minute and a half, the runaway championship leader maintained a scorching pace to extend his lead by over two minutes, winning the first four of the day’s eight Special Stages before cruising home for his 13th win in the championship since his debut in 2007.

“It’s great to win. Four out of four is awesome,” said Gill. “Everything worked well. The tyres worked well since Saturday when it was wet on the tarmac and I have to thank the team for the good setup.

“It was a very difficult rally because of weather conditions constantly changing. Mornings were all wet, afternoon became all dry, then become pretty rough, so pretty difficult but I’m happy.”