The third fixture on the calendar, the Rallye Terre d’Aleria welcomed the Clio Trophy France Terre and its impressive field of Renault Clio Rally5s for the second year running. On Thursday, the crews focused on the shakedown and scrutineering in Corsica. A few hours later, Alexandre Gransagne, Benoit Verlinde, Christophe Truchet and Xavier Pruvot each won a Michelin LTX Force T XL92 tyre in a draw organised by Ceerta, the official Michelin Motorsport distributor for the French Rally Championship.

Hostilities kicked off on Friday morning. Returning to the scene of his first podium finish, Benjamin Boulenc struck first, beating Tom Pellerey by half a second on the opening stage before winning SS2 by a tenth of a second from Mika Rasoamaromaka. Meanwhile, the brittle and dusty terrain of the Isle of Beauty thwarted the hopes of several competitors, including Alexandre Gransagne and Anthony Rovina, who both went off, as well as Faniry Rasoamaromaka, who suffered from technical issues.

While Mika Rasoamaromaka won the morning’s last timed sector and Tom Pellerey the first one of the afternoon, Benjamin Boulenc fought back with a superb run through Pianiccia - Casaperta to extend his lead. Despite a final push from the Malagasy at the end of the day, the leader returned to the service park with a 7.4s advantage while Tom Pellerey was 20.2s back. Behind this trio, who monopolised the top three places in each special stage, Jean-Paul Monnin emerged in fourth place after Baptiste Panissié rolled and the problems of Yannick Francisci, who was fourth on home soil before being forced to retire.

On Saturday, the battle for victory took a brief respite when the three contenders were allocated notional times on the longest special stage of the rally due to the accident of a non-trophy competitor. Benjamin Boulenc resumed his attack on SS8 to take on the decisive loop with a lead of 14.7s. The second passage through Les Lunaries ended Tom Pellerey’s ambitions after he suffered a puncture but allowed Mika Rasoamaromaka to return within 3.7s. It was all to play for in L’Écurie, where Benjamin Boulenc again set the pace in the final 5.84 kilometres while his rival made a mistake and got stuck in a ditch.

Less than twelve months after his first podium finish in Corsica, Benjamin Boulenc claimed his first Clio Trophy France Terre ahead of Tom Pellerey, who claimed his second Junior win of the season. Jean-Paul Monnin finished third despite increasing pressure from Benjamin Stirling and relaunched his campaign. Ludovic De Luca finished fifth, his best result in the competition, as did Ludovic Casciani, sixth on his first appearance this season. Several Gentlemen category competitors made the most of their experience to finish this challenging event in the top ten. Among them was Vincent Favre-Miville, who took the lead from Lilian Vialle on SS7. They were followed by Xavier Pruvot, Dimitri Felices and Déborrah Marie, who put in her best performance to date in Clio Trophy France Terre.

Tom Pellerey continues to lead the Clio Trophy France Terre with a third consecutive podium finish and 29 Jean Ragnotti Performer points over the weekend. Benjamin Boulenc’s victory moves him up to second place ahead of Mika and Faniry Rasoamaromaka. His success, combined with Jean-Paul Monnin’s third place, sees Fun Meca Sport by Meccanocar extend its lead in the teams’ classification while Bandelier Automobiles remains at the top of the Renault Network Challenge.

Round three of the French Gravel Rally Championship also saw Matteo Chatillon make his second appearance of the season behind the wheel of the official Clio Rally3 as a reward for his title of best Junior in 2023. Following in the footsteps of his impressive performances in the World Rally Championship, the 3P Racing by ARL Sport driver impressed throughout the event with several outright top-five finishes despite the 19 Rally2 cars at the start. The Frenchman and co-driver Maxence Cornuau finished fourth overall and led a sweep of the top-four for Clio Rally3 in RC3, ahead of the duos Quentin Ribaud - Loan Biagetti, Michaël Lobry - Gaëtan Parade and Guillaume Tardy - Romain Brun.

The Clio Trophy France Terre competitors now begin their summer break until the penultimate round of the calendar at the Rallye Terre de Lozère (30 August-1 September), where the Clio Trophy Spain Tierra will join them. Meanwhile, the Clio Trophy France Asphalte will resume at the Rallye Vosges Grand Est (14-16 June).

Benjamin Boulenc : "We came to Aleria determined to win. It was our only option after a Rallye Castine Terre d’Occitanie in which we could have performed better. As a result, we fell a bit out of contention in the general classification. We had to put in a good showing on this rally, which we really enjoyed and had done well on last year, finishing third, just 15 seconds shy of victory. We knew we could do it and pressured ourselves to push from the opening stage. It’s not one of my strength, but it worked quite well this time with the first two stage wins. We led throughout the first leg, and the idea was to make the most of the long special stage on Saturday morning. The SS7 stoppage prevented us from doing so, but we pulled away on the following stage with the fastest two-wheel drive time. With a 14s lead over Mika, we switched to management mode, but we caught up with a competitor and his dust. Mika was then three seconds back, so we gave it everything in the final timed sector with another two-wheel drive scratch time, although, unfortunately, Mika didn’t make it to the finish. It’s a shame for him, but we’re delighted with this first victory we’ve been chasing for three years. The aim now is to prepare for the Lozère and the Cardabelles by maintaining this level of performance and going for the title !"

Clio Trophy France Terre – Rallye Terre d’Aleria
1. Benjamin Boulenc – Chloé Barozzi-Gauze 1h50m49.3s
2. Tom Pellerey – Hervé Faucher (J) +2m45.1s
3. Jean Paul Monnin – Franck Gilliot +3m49.1s
4. Benjamin Stirling – Florence Stirling (J) +4m09.6s
5. Ludovic De Luca – José Boyer +5m51.2s
6. Ludovic Casciani – Raphaël Angelou +6m11.1s
7. Vincent Favre-Miville – Maelle Casays (G) +10m42.1s
8. Lilian Vialle – Manuel Ghirardello (G) +11m19.6s
9. Xavier Pruvot – Nathalie Pruvot (G) +14m53s
10. Dimitri Felices – « Clochette » (G) +17m52.3s
11. Déborrah Marie – Amandine Houry (F) +18m35.7s
12. Joan Font – Enrique Velasco (G) +19m29.9s
13. Jean Lavigne – Arnaud Cubizolles (J) +32m06.8s
14. Aurélien Devanthery – Gaël Delasoie +33m31.5s
15. Anthony Rovina – Jean-Baptiste Bacchiolelli (J) +53m25.0s
16. Thomas Eustaquio – Pauline Compozieux (J) +53m52.4s
Ret. Mika Rasoamaromaka – Bastien Pouget (J)
Ret. Benoit Verlinde – Anton Dupan (J)
Ret. Yannick Francisci – Carla Gaffayoli
Ret. Faniry Rasoamaromaka – François Heer (J)
Ret. Baptiste Panissié – Gaël Lavernhe (J)
Ret. Christophe Truchet – Barbara Truchet
Ret. Alexandre Gransagne – Loïc Maurel
DNS. Bastien Bergounhe – Mathieu Descharne (J)
DNS. Arthur Pelamourgues – Enzo Mahinc (J)

Clio Trophy France Terre standings - Jean Ragnotti Performer standings - Teams standings - Renault Network Challenge