Davangere, Karnataka: Gaurav Gill was the fastest on the first day of the Maruti Suzuki’s Dakshin Dare competition that commenced here on Monday.

Gill along with his co-driver Musa Sherif clocked a time of 2:25:47 minutes in all the three special stages of the day. His team mate Phillipos Matthai with navigator V.V.S Murthy came second with 2:30:19 minutes. Amittrajit Ghosh with Ashwin Naik was close on the heels of the leading pack clocking 2:30:24 minutes.

The two-wheeler category saw Yuva Kumar leading with a time of1:43:30 minutes. Vishwas S.D. was second with 1:48:22 ahead of Akash Aithal (1:49:29).

The first round of Dakshin Dare saw the car compete in three special stages (dirt/gravel) with a total distance of 129 kilometres while the bikers covered a total distance of 86.42 kilometres for their special stages.

Gill, who finished on top of the first day, said that he was cautious about the track’s terrain and thus began slowly.

“We were not aware of the terrain and there was a lot of gravel on the tracks. I usually scorch the track but here i had to be cautious and slide through the corners rather than coming in fast,” he said.