Alister McRae is refusing to concede the Asia Pacific title to his Proton team-mate Chris Atkinson, despite the Australian landing his third victory of 2011 on the recent International Rally of Whangarei.

Scot McRae, who was second on the New Zealand gravel event, trails Atkinson by 23 points with two events remaining in Japan and China.

He said: “I’m definitely not giving up on this. We had a few small things [on Whangarei]: an intercom problem, running the wrong tyre for a loop and then I spun on Sunday morning, but the championship’s still possible.

“On the two rounds left, I led in Japan and I won in China last year. It would have been nice to have taken some points off Chris [Atkinson] in New Zealand, but we weren’t able to – we have to do that next time out.”

No British driver has ever won the Asia Pacific crown.