Team MRF so far is dominating after winning the first two rounds of the season 2012, with Australian Chris Atkinson in the opening round and Indian Gaurav Gill in the second, and aims for a Hat-trick by winning third round!
Added to the boost to Team MRF, there is a huge amount of morale support for Chris in his homeland by fellow countrymen & two new homeland sponsors backing up see him to the victory. Listen to him here in this video.
While privateer Brian Green in his third overall position in the championship is trying hard to make more points.
Not very far away is the factory backed Proton team, with their attack on S2000 and R2, R3 cars with substantially huge numbers.
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After Day 1 the standings are as follows,
He said he loved the experience.“I’ve had a fantastic day at the International Rally of Queensland with BP. I knew it was going to be tough, but not that tough. I’ve learnt a lot and just managed to stay out of trouble. I’ll be a lot better driver for the experience. We had no major problems, but it was a tricky day with a lot of changes in grip level with damp roads in some places and dry in others, I’m sure it would have been a bit more of a challenge if some of the other guys hadn’t had problems ” said Atkinson
He was handed an advantage as early as the second stage when defending champion Alister McRae was slowed by a rear suspension joint failure and, later, an engine misfire in his Malaysian factory Proton S2000.
Atkinson’s teammate Gaurav Gill, was forced to retire his Skoda for the day after a damaged wiring harness stopped the engine, but will continue in leg two tomorrow.
And Proton’s Swedish star, two-time Junior World Rally Champion Per-Gunnar Andersson, battled an engine valve rocker failure and then a loose hose connection that sprayed the windscreen with fuel. (If you guys remember, it was his car that caught on fire at the WRC 2012 season opening Monte Carlo Rally, at an hair-pin). However this time he managed to repair the fuel hose at the roadside, losing 12 minutes, but will carry on with the engine problem hoping at least still to score championship points, if not a rally win. He is in ninth place and more than 15 minutes off the lead.
“We had a good day, no problems at all,” Andersson quipped. “This is my first time in this rally and I loved the roads, especially the Pomona (BP Ultimate) stage. It was fast and flowing.”
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Chris Atkinson has won the Rally of Queensland this time while, Proton's Alistar Mcrae has taken the runner-up and NZ's Brian Green has finished the last on the podium..
This means that Team MRF's wish to hit a hat-trick has yielded positively.
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