India’s Gaurav Gill has won the 2017 Rally of Hokkaido in his MRF Team Skoda and moved into the lead of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship points, ahead of the final round in India, late November.

There was high drama on the first morning when four of Gill’s main rivals retired on Stage 3, including his MRF team-mate Ole Christian Veiby from Norway.

Gill though completed both days with no problems and prior to celebrating on the finish podium said “It’s been a perfect weekend, getting maximum points. Most importantly I’m back in the championship and the last round is in India, my home country.”

“Japan as always is difficult with such high speeds and rough roads, however we had the perfect tyre choice and the perfect car from our team MRF Skoda. Would have been good to have OC in the fight but unfortunately he went off yesterday – we had a great weekend, overall very satisfying.”

Behind, it was Mpart’s Robert Blomberg (co-driver Lars Andersson) in the Mitsubishi Mirage taking his first podium of the seasom, finishing 11m41.4s aloof Gill.

The Swedish driver inherited second after Cusco Racing’s Yuyi Sumiyama (co-driver co-driver Takahiro Yasui) in the Skoda R5 was forced to retire in SS12 due to mechanical issues.

Third in the APRC class went to Fuyuhiko Takahashi (co-driver Mitsuo Nakamura) in the Subaru Impreza. He was fourth overall in Rally Hokkaido, which was run alongside the Japanese Rally Championship.

Returning after Leg 1 retirements were MRF Skoda’s Ole Christian Veiby (co-driver Stig Skjarmoen) in his Skoda R5 and Mpart Sport’s Sanjay Takale (co-driver Noriko Takeshita) in his Mitsubishi Mirage in Leg 2.