Gaurav Gill, returning to rallying after a year’s break, showed no rustiness as he topped the time sheets in the 49th South India Rally, which commenced at the Madras International Circuit here on Friday.

The three-day event is also the second round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship and Round-1 of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship.

The 44-year-old Gill, a three-time APRC champion and winner of seven National titles, clocked a combined time of two minutes, 51.5 seconds for the two loops of 1.45 kms dirt Super Special Stage. He piloted a Volkswagen Polo to finish 5.1 seconds ahead of arch-rival Karna Kadur in the APRC segment with Jason Saldanha in third place.

Gill, with the experienced Srikanth Gowda as co-driver for the first time, gave a near-flawless exhibition of pace, precision and car control and looked to be in a good space going into Saturday’s Special Stages.

Arun Y. Mavaji and Arvind Dheerendra topped the INRC 2 and INRC 3 classes, respectively, while Tarushi Vikram was the fastest in the Ladies class and also in the Junior INRC category.

Provisional results (Leg-1, Section-1): Asia-Pacific Rally Championship: 1. Gaurav Gill & Srikanth Gowda (02mins, 51.5secs); 2. Karna Kadur & Kumar Ramaswamy (02:56.6); 3. Jason Saldanha & P.V. Srinivasa Murthy (02:58.3).

Indian National Rally Championship: INRC Overall: 1. Gill & Gowda (02:51.5); 2. Ritesh Rai & Phalguna Raghavendra (02:55.6); 3. Kadur & Ramaswamy (02:56.6)

INRC 2: 1. Arjun Y. Mavaji & Jeevarathinam J. (03:09.5); 2. Ritesh Guttedar & M. Suraj (03:10.3); 3. Rakshith Iyer & Chandrashekar (03:18.2).

INRC 3: 1. Arvind Dheerendra & Shahid Salman (03:01.5); 2. Ashwin Pulagiri & Raghunath Swaminathan (03:01.9); 3. Tarushi Vikram & Athreya Kousgi (03:05.6).

INRC 3T: 1. Vikash Balachandran & Chiranth Jain (02:59.6); 2. K.C. Adith & C.A. Avinash (03:09.7); 3. Sidhartha Santosh & Sawan Sathyanarayan (03:11.9).

Ladies: 1. Tarushi Vikram & Athreya Kousgi (03:05.6); 2. Athira Murali & Arun Chakkalakkal (03:05.9); 3. Shivani Pruthvi & Vinay Padmashali (03:09.4).

Junior INRC: 1. Tarushi & Athreya (03:05.6); 2. Hoshmand Elavia & Venu Ramesh Kumar (03:14.0).