It was a bad day in office for India's most-celebrated rally racer Gaurav Gill on the second day of the 41st South India Rally at the Madras Motorsport Race Track (MMRT) near Chennai on Saturday. The Team Mahindra Adventure's big fish, who is now back in his favourite stable (JK Tyres), was confident of punching out the rest with ease in the INRC opener. But, it came as a shocker to see him fall way behind the pack.
So, what went wrong and is it the problem with the man or the machine (Mahindra Adventure XUV 300 R2 Petrol)?
Blame it on the machine as Gill is currently in top form.
Obviously, he was disappointed but hid it nicely under his smile. "My form is not the question but there are some minor issues. We are trying to understand what the car wants but there's nothing wrong as well as it's all a part of the development process," said Gill.
"We thought we will use this rally as a test. We expected our results to be a little inconsistent but that's okay as it is all about learning," he added.
But frankly speaking the test should have been done before the rally. "Quite true, but we had some unfortunate incidents and circumstances that were beyond our reach. It does not matter still as we still have five rounds to go in the season and that should be enough to catch up," he said.
But N. Leelakrishnan, the man who is preparing the car, was still working hard on the machine. "The sensor actually failed which shut the engine down. It's a very small issue and unfortunately it cost us time. This is the first rally and we did not have much time as there were some unforseen delays," said Leelakrishnan.
"Motorsport is where things like this can happen. Whenever you are running a new package these are bound to happen. Sometimes issues can crop up and you can get away without losing time and vice versa. So, today is one of those days we were not fortunate enough and it is not the problem with the man or the machine. It is just a situation, he added.
He further stated strongly that the team will thrash the opposition by at least three minutes in the next round at Coimbatore.
Hari Singh, Head of Operations, JK Tyres, had this to say. "I know things have not fallen in place but the XUV300 is a new car and the work is still going on. So nothing to worry as we got the best driver, tuner and the car."
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