Clio Cup Series

Twice a winner in the 41-car field at Circuit Paul Ricard, Anthony Jurado reclaimed the lead in Clio Cup Europe. While the French driver won twice, his team manager Nicolas Milan won his third consecutive Clio Cup France title, his eighth in France and 14th in the discipline after his rival David Pouget retired on Sunday. The GPA Racing structure could console itself with Alexandre Albouy’s title in the Challengers Cup despite 17-year-old Joran Leneutre’s first overall win Saturday evening. In the Gentlemen Drivers Cup, Mathieu Rigoulet held off Pierre Monmaneix to dispossess Laurent Dziadus of his crown. The field also included the Clio Cup Spain contingent, with Nico Abella taking the lead while Fabien Julia secured the title in the Gentlemen’s Cup. The competitors will meet again at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (11-13 November) for the Clio Cup Europe, Clio Cup Italia and Clio Cup Spain season finales.

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Clio Trophy Swiss

The Rallye International du Valais lived up to its promise for the final round of the Clio Trophy Swiss. Ismaël Vuistiner - Florine Kummer and Guillaume Girolamo - Benjamin Bétrisey were in contention for the title and pushed each other hard before the leaders of the general classification made a mistake on SS8. Guillaume Girolamo, who had already clinched the 2022 Swiss Junior Rally title, controlled the end of the rally to win and add the Clio Trophy Swiss 2022 to his list of honours. Yoan Loeffler - Mathieu Coppa finished second ahead of the duo of Cédric Moulin - Eric Bigler. On the Valais roads, Nicolas Lathion and Mélanie Tendille scored a podium finish in their class while also finishing in the overall top ten in the Swiss Rally Championship in their Clio Rally4.

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Clio Trophy Turkey

By winning seven of the eight stages of the Royal Teos Ege Rallisi, the duo of Tuncer Sancakli and Asena Sancakli became the first repeat winners this season in Clio Trophy Turkey. Winning by 1:12.9s ahead of Nebil Erbil - Asli Erbil, the pair extended their lead to six and a half points in the general classification. Third with his co-driver Ozden Yilmaz, Menderes Okur can still claim the title in the season finale on the Istanbul Rallisi (12-14 November). Meanwhile, Buğra Can Kiliç and Yusuf Çalik put in a superb showing to lead Clio Rally4 to victory in the two-wheel-drive category while finishing seventh overall.

FFSA French Junior Rallycross Championship

After he mathematically sealed the deal at the previous meeting, Tom Le Jossec concluded his campaign in style, taking his sixth victory in eight rounds on his 22nd birthday. Succeeding David Bouet, the new FFSA French Junior Rallycross Champion will have a Super 1600 programme in 2023. Invited by Rallycross France and its partners, Tom Pieri caused a sensation on his rallycross debut. The best Junior in the 2022 Clio Trophy France Asphalte finished second ahead of Mathieu Frétin, Loris Meslier and Camille Barbe in this championship contested exclusively with Clio RX. Rally operations engineer for Alpine Racing, our collaborator Martin Pireyre ended P11 in this final !

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Elsewhere

Clio Rally4 excelled in the Netherlands with a one-two finish in RC4/Rally4 led by Jeroen Klein Kromhof and Jarno Bak on the Rocar-Tech Twente Rally and an overall top-ten finish. In the same event, Clio Rally5 won its category with Ben van de Laar and Marlon Krieger.

Clio Rally4 also claimed class podiums, with Miguel Caires and João Miguel Sousa, who finished eighth overall on Rali do Marítimo - Município de Machico (Portugal), Clemente Alves Bello and José Luis Suárez García on Rallye San Froilán (Spain) and Dominique and Samuel Hoarau on the Rallye National de Saint-Joseph on Reunion Island (France).

In Spain, the Clio Rally5 of Alejandro Martín Afonso and Judith Cabello Guerra finished third overall in the Rallysprint Ciudad de Arucas, whilst the same model was fifth with Manuel Hernández Padrón and David Bethencourt. In Italy, Clio Rally5 signed a sweep of the top four led by Davide Craviotto - Fabrizio Piccinini at Rally delle Palme and a lockout of the podium led by Andrea Saredi and Alex Colombo on Rally del Rubinetto. Clio Rally5 also won outside Europe, with the duo of Mitsuhiro Kunisawa - Masahiko Kihara winning the JN-2 category of the MCSC Highland Masters in Japan !

Coming up

This week the Clio Trophy Italia will wrap up at the 41st Rally Trofeo Villa d’Este ACI Como (20-23 October). Giovanni Marco Lanzalaco comes in as the general classification leader, but Andrea Scalzotto and Alex Ferrari can still deny him the crown.

Meanwhile, several Clio Rally4 and Clio Rally5 cars will battle on the RallyRACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada, which hosts round 12 of the FIA World Rally Championship and the FIA ERC season-finale. Among them, Andrea Mabellini will be one to watch. Already crowned on the European scene with Clio Rally5 in 2021 and on the national stage with Clio Rally4 in 2022, the Italian will look to reverse his points deficit to claim the FIA ERC4 title.