Gaurav Gill

Indian rally driver

Gaurav Gill
Personal information
Gaurav Gill 2019
Nationality	Indian
Born	(1981-12-02) 2 December 1981 (age 42)
World Rally Championship record
Active years	2007–2019 ( Team MRF ) Years = 2019 current – Jk Tyres
Teams	Team MRF, Team Sidvin India, Jk Tyres
Rallies	10
Stage wins	0
First rally	2008 Wales Rally GB WRC
Last rally	2019 Rally TURKEY WRC
Last updated on: August 2018.

Gaurav Gill is a professional rally driver and an Indian motorsports athlete who competes in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. In 2013, Gaurav Gill became the first Indian driver to win the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship and went on to win two more APRC titles in 2016 and 2018. Gill became the first sportsperson from Motorsports to win the coveted Arjuna Award from the President of India in 2019.^[1]

Gaurav Gill also holds the record for the highest number of the Indian National Rally Championship titles for four-wheelers along with Naren Kumar. He equaled the record of Kumar by winning his seventh title in 2020. The last four of his seven titles were won with the Mahindra Adventure team with experienced Musa Sherif as his navigator. Gaurav also took part in the World Rally Championship round in Australia in 2018 as an unregistered driver in the WRC2 class driving for new development MRF Tyres, making him the only Indian driver to do so ever.

Early life and career

Gaurav was born on 2 December 1981. He got into motorsport racing motorbikes and competed in the National Motocross Championship in 1999. He moved to 4-wheel racing and started competing in car rallies and endurance races. He signed up for the Raid-de-Himalaya in 2000. He was runner-up in the National Road Racing Championship in 2003 and won the title in the following year. He finished the 2006 season, second overall. In 2007, Gaurav won the Indian National Rally Championship with Team MRF and made his debut at the Asia Pacific Rally Championship. He finished runner up in the APRC in 2012 and became the first Indian to win the title in 2013 for Team MRF Skoda.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

Career results

APRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	APRC	Points
2007	Team MRF	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	NCL Ret	NZL	AUS	JPN				8th	9
2007	Team MRF	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII					MAL 5	IDN 4	CHN Ret	8th	9
2008	Team MRF	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	NCL	AUS	NZL	JPN	IDN 1	MAL Ret	CHN	8th	17
2009	Team MRF	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	NCL	AUS 4	NZL	JPN Ret		IDN Ret	CHN Ret	4th	12
2009	Team MRF	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX					MAL Ret			4th	12
2010	Team MRF	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	MAL 2	JPN 3	NZL 7	AUS 1	NCL DNS	IDN C	CHN Ret	2nd	97
2011	Team MRF	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	MAL 2	AUS 2	NCL Ret	NZL Ret	JPN Ret	CHN Ret		4th	63
2012	Team MRF Škoda	Škoda Fabia S2000	NZL 3	NCL 1	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	JPN Ret	CHN Ret		4th	82
2013	Team MRF Škoda	Škoda Fabia S2000	NZL 2	NCL 1	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	JPN 1	CHN 2		1st	145.5
2014	Team MRF Škoda	Škoda Fabia S2000	NZL 1	IND C	NCL 2	AUS Ret	MAL 1	JPN Ret	CHN Ret	3rd	104
2015^[6]	Team MRF Škoda	Škoda Fabia S2000	NZL 2	NCL 1^[7]	AUS Ret	MAL 2	JPN Ret	CHN Ret		3rd	104

Awards

Arjuna Award In Motorsport

References

^ "7 tips from Gaurav Gill for upcoming Indian rally drivers". Red Bull. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
^ "About Gaurav Gill". Archived from the original on 5 September 2009. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
^ The Hindu. 25 August 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20080828113508/http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/25/stories/2008082560231600.htm. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ "Profile, Gaurav Gill". Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Archived 9 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
^ http://www.thehindu.com/sport/motorsport/article961329.ece. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ "FIA APRC – Asia-Pacific Rally Championship".
^ "Perfect Result for MRF in New Caledonia". 20 May 2015.