Team MRF driver Gaurav Gill wins Rally of Malaysia

Team MRF driver and defending Asia Pacific Rally Champion (APRC) Gaurav Gill went on to win the Malaysian Rally despite a problem with his rear suspension.  Gill had incidentally crashed out in Australia but here he finished over 13 minutes ahead of Australia’s Mark Pedder, to put himself within ten points’ reach of overall championship leader and teammate Jan Kopecky.

 With Czech teammate Jan Kopecky out of the classification with a suspension break on day one, it was left to Gill to finish and make sure at least one Team MRF car was on top. Gill got off to a wonderful start but had to ease off after he had trouble with his suspension.

Gill later said that the rear suspension stopped working because of the heat. The priority, he said was to make sure one of the cars finished on top. A day prior to this, Gill's team-mate Jan Kopecky (co-driver Pavel Dresler) suffered a broken rear suspension as he seemed set to win his third consecutive rally when his Skoda S2000 landed too hard on a jump in Special Stage six (Tai Tak Fish Pond). Kopecky had by then won three of the five stages and built up a lead of 1:14.8s.

 The racing crew will now move to the penultimate rally in Japan (September 26-28). For Kopecky it will be his first rally in Japan.  Gill said the strategy would be to go absolutely flat out from the word go in Japan.