Gaurav Gill

Gaurav Gill (born 2 December 1981) is a professional rally driver and an Indian motorsports athlete from New Delhi. In 2013, he became the first Indian driver to win the Overall FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship and went on to win two more APRC Overall titles in 2016 and 2017. He became the first sportsperson from motorsport in India to win the Arjuna Award from the president of India in 2019.

Early life Gill was born on 2 December 1981. Since he had to wait till 18 years to get a driving license, he took to motocross, armed with an fmsci license granted for closed-door events, and also won the trials run by TVS and bagged a factory ride. In 1999, he switched to cars, as soon as he turned 18. Later, 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. Then 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.

Indian National Rally Championship Gill also holds the joint record for the highest number of the Indian National Rally Championship titles for four-wheelers along with Naren Kumar. He won his second APRC overall title winning all the six rounds he took part in, culminating in the sixth and final round, the India Rally at Chikmagalur in India. He also became the first Indian to set 11 fastest class stage times in WRC2 class but his times were classified in RC2 class only, as he did not register for the WRC2 championship due to the non-homologation of his MRF tyres. His sponsor MRF Tyres roped in M-Sport in England to build and prepare a Ford Fiesta confirming to R5 rally specs. Team MRF Škoda Škoda Fabia S2000

2016 Team MRF Škoda Škoda Fabia S2000 NZL 1 AUS 1 JPN 1 MAL 1 IND 1 1st 2017 Team MRF Škoda Škoda Fabia S2000 1st Awards Arjuna Award In Motorsport