At the end of the first loop of the three Special Stages, Gill led the pack by 58 seconds, ahead of Arjun Rao (Satish Rajagopal), driving a R2 variant of the Volkswagen Polo with Team Yokohama’s Rahul Kanthraj (Vivek Bhatt) in Mitsubishi Cedia, a distant third while Thapar slid to ninth Overall.