Gill rolled his Ford Fiesta Rally3 at Rali Terras d'Aboboreira – a warm-up event held ahead of the WRC round – marking the Australian's first non-finish in more than two years of rallying.
"It was a wake-up call, to be honest, because it just showed that all it takes is the tiniest mistake – a couple of inches too tight to a corner – and it's all over," Gill explained. "But it meant that we stayed out of trouble this weekend. I'd rather have done the crashing last weekend.
"It was my first crash, actually. I've never crashed and had to retire from a rally, so that was it. And it ended a streak of 16 rallies with no Super Rally, no retirements or anything."
Despite the setback, Gill and co-driver Daniel Brkic bounced back with a confident and controlled performance in Portugal, leading from Friday to secure a 13.4-second win over Mille Johansson. It was their second win in as many rounds – but Johansson's haul of stage win bonus points means the two are now tied at the top of the championship standings.
"We won the rally, so I'll take it," Gill said. "We've proved that we can be consistent and stay out of trouble, and Mille has proved that he can win stages. At the end of the day, it is what it is. We know the point system and we're managing it."
Gill believes the crash ahead of the rally helped unlock the pace shown in Portugal.
"We couldn't have had the speed we had this weekend if we didn't crash last weekend, as weird as it sounds. After it happened, it was almost like a weight off the shoulders.
"That was our little accident out of the way – 'now we'll go to Portugal and push like hell'," he added. "In a way, that crash was a positive. We missed out on a few kilometres and it cost a bit of money, but that's it. It was still really good that we could do that preparation - do the rally and also the test before – it really helped us out massively."
Looking ahead, Gill expects the title fight with Johansson to continue, although he's not ruling out other challengers.
"I was a bit surprised by some of the pace this weekend – in both directions, let's say. But yeah, it looks to be a good fight between Mille and myself.
"Now we go to two events we've got experience on from last year, so hopefully we can really put that into good effect."
While more mileage in Rally3 machinery would be helpful, budget constraints mean additional outings aren't currently on the cards.
"We've got a limited budget and we're trying to focus it really hard on doing the really key preparations for each JWRC rally – like we did before this weekend with the rally and some testing before that.
----This news comes from WRC NEWS and is NOT for commercial purposes
