The 2017 runner-up and defending Junior category champion, Florian Bernardi lived up to his stature as favourite to succeed Cédric Robert in this fourth edition of the Clio 3T Trophy France.

On the roads of the Rallye Le Touquet Pas-de-Calais, the native of Vaucluse came out swinging, taking the win ahead of Gentleman driver Olivier Delaporte and first among the Juniors, Thibaut Poizot. On Rallye Lyon-Charbonnières-Rhône, Florian Bernardi took another win,this time ahead of ”newcomer” Boris Carminati, making his full-time return to competition, and Thibaut Poizot, once again in third place.

Just as he was going for his third consecutive victory in 2018, on the Rallye Aveyron Rouergue Occitanie, Florian Bernardi faced a hard-charging Boris Carminati. On day one, the two traded best times like two boxers exchanging punches with Florian Bernardi getting the upper hand…just until he went off in the first timed sector on Saturday !

While Boris Carminati clinched his first victory of the season, his rival had to push to limit the damage. And so he did, finishing second as well as scoring a maximum points bonus in the Trophée Jean Ragnotti.

At the mid-way point in the season, Florian Bernardi has a 34 point lead from Boris Carminati, but the gap drops to just 11 with the discarding of the worst result of the season. The battle promises to be just as intense among the Juniors between Thibaut Poizot and Mathieu Walter, while Olivier Delaporte is still under threat from the other Gentleman drivers as he looks to show the speed he demonstrated on the season-opening Touquet round.

In other words, no competitor can afford to make a mistake on the Mont Blanc, Cœur de France and Rallye du Var !