Thaindian News

Coimbatore, July 24 (IANS) Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif) of Team MRF scored a comfortable win, his second this season, in the Indian National Rally Championship as he topped the Rally of Coimbatore here Sunday.

With a 28.6 seconds lead overnight, Gill, the 29-year old from Delhi, and winner of the first round at Nashik, eschewed risk to bring home his Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia (Group N+) safely, 38.1 seconds ahead of team-mate Arjun Balu (Sujith Kumar) who, incidentally, chalked up his first finish and podium this season.

Down the grid, Karna Kadur (Somonita Ghosh) who finished third overall, won in the 2000cc (Group N) class after wiping off a two-second overnight deficit to push Vikram Devadasen (Somaya AG) to second place with a blistering run in the day’s first of two Special Stages when he made some 32 seconds.

In third place was Sirish Chandran (Nikhil Pai) who moved up a spot from fourth after Shailendra Hegde (Prajval Pai) was docked a road penalty of one minute, 10 seconds for early check in at one of the Time Controls.

The overnight positions in the other classes were unchanged. Balaram CG (Santosh Kumar S) topped in the 1600cc class while veteran Sanjay Agarwal (Shivaprakash E) from Bangalore took the honours in the Gypsy Cup as did Karan AM (Shanmuga SN) in the Star Cup (1400cc) class.

Provisional Classification:
Overall: Gaurav Gill / Musa Sherif (MRF) 1 (1hr, 37mins, 34.6secs); Arjun Balu / BS Sujith Kumar (MRF) 2 (01:38:12.7); Karna Kadur / Somonita Ghosh (Pvt) 3 (01:43:29.2).

2000CC (Group N): Karna Kadur / Somonita Ghosh (Pvt) 1 (01:43:29.2); Vikram Devadasen / Somaya AG (Pvt) 2 (01:43:56.4); Sirish Chandran / Nikhil Pai (Pvt) 3 (01:44:45.7).

1600cc: Balaram CG / Santosh Kumar S (Pvt) 1 (01:55:58.4); Prakhyat Shirole / Roopesh Kholay (Pvt) 2 (01:56:38.0); Siddharth Ranganekar / Nitin Jacob (Pvt) 3 (01:57:13.4).

Star Cup (1400cc): Karan AM / Shanmuga SN (Pvt) 1 (01:52:40.2); Vikram Rao / S Dinesh (Pvt) 2 (01:57:00.0); Vineeth Vincent Tom / Sob George (Pvt) 3 (01:57:37.1).

Gypsy Cup: Sanjay Agarwal / Shivaprakash E (Pvt) 1 (01:53:14.3); Shafeeq-ur Rehman / Adiraj Bardhan (Pvt) 2 (02:00:00.2); John K Phillip / Phillip Thomas (Pvt) 3 (02:09:51.1).