Clio Rally3

Clio Rally3 made a promising debut this weekend, combining perfect performance and absolute reliability on three different rallies and two different surfaces.

In France, the new model caused a sensation at the Dieppe Rally in the hands of Thomas Chauffray and Anthony Hamard, immediately topping the leaderboard. The GMC Competition crew won three stages and finished in the top five of the 11 stages to end up second, just 12.6 seconds behind the winning Rally2 entry.

Three Clio Rally3s were in action on the Rallye Castine Terre d’Occitanie. With ten top ten finishes in ten stages and even a fifth fastest time in the longest-timed sector, Quentin Ribaud and Mélissa Declerck won the Rally3 category while finishing seventh overall. Fun Meca Sport’s duo was ahead of Manu Gascou and Gilles de Turckheim, ninth in the general classification, and Bastien Bergounhe - Alizée Pottier in an all-Clio Rally3 podium.

Meanwhile, Alessandro Casella and Rosario Siragusano made steady progress in their Clio Rally3 debut at the Targa Florio. The Italian Junior Rally Champion took the measure of his new mount as the stages unfolded, to finish in the top 20, being preceded only by Rally2 machines on the Sicilian tarmac.

Quentin Ribaud : "The outcome is extremely positive. We had a lot of fun with Clio Rally3. It is a fun car to drive, stable and can be driven easily in all conditions. We are delighted to have won Rally3 against Manu Gascou, whose four-wheel drive experience on gravel makes him the benchmark. To finish seventh overall was also a nice surprise and exceeded our expectations. We are now looking forward to Aléria to confirm and reduce the gap between us and the top five. We also want to thank all our partners for their trust and support, and especially Fun Meca Sport for the incredible job they did."

Clio Rally4

Winners on their Clio Rally4 debut in the French 2WD Gravel Rally Championship, Florian Bouchonneau and Jeanne Rey had a more challenging round on the Rallye Castine Terre d’Occitanie. In contention for the podium during the first leg, the official crew lost a lot of time with a puncture on SS6 and focused on their learning process afterwards. Also competing in Clio Rally4, the duos of Ola Nore - Max Freeman and Simon Heinemann - Yves Heinemann finished seventh and ninth in their class.

And elsewhere

In France, Thomas Bordagaray and Antoine Loiseau won the Rallye du Morbihan in Rally4 and finished fourth overall. Romain Leclercq and Alex Dubois claimed a class podium at the Dieppe Rally, as did Frédéric Meurant - Kévin Aumeunier at the Rallye du Val d’Ance.

Meanwhile, Jonas Dewilde and Jeffrey Vandenbussche won the Monteberg Rally (Belgium) with Clio Rally4. In Portugal, Nuno Coelho and Rui Raimundo finished second in the X5-16 class on the Rali de Santo Tirso, whilst Dinarte Baptista and Igor Velosa finished fifth in the Madeira 2WD Championship on the tarmac of the Rali da Calheta.

Clio Rally5

Italian Junior Rally Championship

The Targa Florio was the kick-off round of the Italian Junior Rally Championship, run exclusively with Clio Rally5s serviced by Motorsport Italia. Despite a scare in the final stage, Davide Pesavento - Marco Frigo won by 1.8 seconds over Igor Iani and Puliani Nicola. Riccardo Pederzani and Edoardo Brovelli completed the podium in a top three covered by 9.6 seconds. Davide Pesavento will defend his championship leader status against the 11 other crews at the San Marino Rally (16-18 May).

More information here.

Clio Trophy France Terre

Jean-Sébastien Vigion, who won the season opener, did it again on the heels of his birthday by controlling the proceedings at the Rallye Castine Terre d’Occitanie to win ahead of Gentleman Laurent Reuche and Junior Mika Rasoamaromaka. With co-driver Yannick Roche, the Vigion Promo Sport leader jumped into the lead before overcoming the hazards of the tricky and rough terrain to extend his lead in the general classification before an all-new round next month at the Rallye Terre d’Aléria (1-4 June).

More information here.

Clio Trophy Canarias

Season two of the Clio Trophy Canarias opened at Rally Islas Canarias with 11 Clio Rally5s entered. Noé Armas - Alejandro Falcón edged Manuel Hernández - David Bethencourt in a titanic duel, settled by only 2.1 seconds after 13 stages and 190 competitive kilometres. Víctor Valido - Omar Hernández completed the podium. With this success, achieved with the smallest gap in the history of the Clio Trophy Canarias, Noé Armas takes the lead in the general classification ahead of the Rally Isla de Gran Canaria (2-3 June).

More information here.

And elsewhere

In South America, Alfonso López and Sebastián González finished fifth overall and first in the RC4N category at the Rally de Rocha. New category leaders, the Uruguayans are also fourth now in the Uruguayan Rally Championship. Meanwhile, Marlon Mejia and Adrian Frias won in the RC5 class and finished eighth overall on the Rally de Catamayo (Ecuador).

The ADAC Rallye Sulingen, which counts for the German, Danish and Dutch championships, was the venue for the start of the Clio Rally Trophy Nederlands. Willem Wouter Overbeek and Christiaan van der Rijsen took the win ahead John Coumans - Renaldo Lier and Elbert Deij - Nadia Muilwijk and won the RC5 by a margin of six-tenths of a second over Kasper Nyman Andersen - Claus Kammersgaard.

Ten Clio Rally5s participated in the Raliul Harghitei to kick off the Romanian Rally Championship. Sebastian Scîrlet and Andrei Mitrașcă excelled by dominating the RC5 and the challenge organised between Clio Rally5s ahead of Andrei Gheorghiu - Andrei Zbigniew Brezoszki and Samuil Mircea - Călin Ilie Maier. The winners were also fourth in the Junior category, beaten only by models from the superior category.

Other successes included Tim Wacker and Luca Kiefer at the Birkenfelder ADAC Löwenrallye (Germany), Lander Depotter and Ruben Depotter at the Monteberg Rally (Belgium), Marco Dell’Elce - Federica Del Sordo at the Rally Costa del Gargano (Italy) and Jaroslav Petráš - Petr Jindra at the Síť21 Rallysprint Kopná (Czech Republic).

In France, Clio Rally3 was not the only one to win near its production site, as Claude and Augustin Legras led Clio Rally5 to victory at the Dieppe Rally. Still in France, Jérôme Janny and Anderson Levratti put in a solid weekend to finish eighth overall on the Lorraine Rally. Alexis Delorme and Angeline Ravier also finished in the overall top ten on the Rallye du Val d’Ance, as did Antoine Bordagaray and Pierre Renault, who beat Sylvain Alanore and Flora Mercière on the Rallye du Morbihan. Lastly, Nicolas Paviet-Roche and Mylène Richard scored a category victory on the Rallye du Beaufortain.

Clio Cup Series

Fastest in all the practice and qualifying sessions, as well as in the races, at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, David Pouget (GPA Racing) had the perfect weekend in the Nièvre. Winning twice ahead of Nicolas Milan (Milan Compétition) and Challenger Alexandre Finkelstein (GPA Racing), the Frenchman increased his lead in the Clio Cup Series and continued to close in on his rival in Clio Cup France. The double winner among the Racers, their compatriot Jérémy Bordagaray (Milan Compétition), now leads in Clio Cup España. The next Clio Cup Series meeting will take the field to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (26-28 May).

More information here.