Gill and Brkic give Australia JWRC lead

Australian rising rallying star Taylor Gill has pushed himself to the top of the FIA JWRC standings after a strong drive in Greece.

Despite winning the first two rounds in Sweden and Portugal, Gill and co-driver Daniel Brkic arrived at the Greek Acropolis Rally level on points with Swede rival Mille Johansson.

However, the Aussies are now seven points in the black after a solid journey to second in sweltering conditions behind Turkey’s Ali Turkkan after Johansson battled to seventh.

It was by no means a simple drive either as the Australians had to overcome multiple punctures and overheating issues as temperatures soared to 40 degrees.

These dramas saw Gill fall to as low as seventh on the opening day, but he gritted his teeth to reclaim a fighting second, led by a pair of second-day stage wins.

“We were under no illusions that it was going to be a bit of a lottery,” Gill said.

“Day one was frustrating. We had punctures, the car was overheating, and we couldn’t really find a groove on the stages.

“We knew, however, that we had to stick fat, push on, and wait for the others to flounder around us.

“We’d clawed our way back to the podium, but as it is with Greece, there’s always a rock around the corner, and we had two flats in one stage, which dropped us back down the leaderboard.

“We began the fightback again, and finished the day well.”

A big turning point of the rally was the retirement of Thomas Martens as it promoted the Aussies to second.

Now, Gill turns his attention to retaining the hard-earnt championship lead ahead of the next round in Finland on July 31-August 3.

“Once Martens retired, we knew we were not in contention for the win without a miracle, so we cruised to the end,” he said.

“We were running low on tyres, so we knew we couldn’t push for stage wins, so we held position to take home the silver placing.

“Our third consecutive podium in the 2025 Junior WRC gives us a seven point championship lead heading into the penultimate round, Rally Finland.

“It wasn’t an easy weekend; we did much more conserving than proper rally driving, but that’s the way it is in Greece.”

Before Finland, Gill and Brkic will tackle a European Rally Championship round in Rome for extra preparation.

Image: Supplied

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