Clio Trophy Spain Asfalto

Navigated by Aday Ortiz, Alejandro Martín overcame a wrong tyre choice early on to score his second consecutive Clio Trophy Spain Asfalto victory on Rallye Cidade de Narón. The winning duo finished 6.1s ahead of Fran Cima and Anna Tallada. Juan Manuel Mañá and David Fernández completed a podium covered by only 11.3s. With the win, reigning Clio Trophy Canarias title-winner steals the lead in the general classification from Carlos Rodríguez, who was sixth after going off the road on SS1. The penultimate round of the calendar takes place on the Rally Princesa de Asturias (8-10 September).

In the same event, two-time title-holder Jorge Cagiao created a stir, scoring his maiden overall win in an Alpine A110 Rally to consolidate his lead in the Spanish Tarmac Rally Cup. Meanwhile, Unai de la Dehesa and Daniel Sosa finished seventh overall and second in their category with Clio Rally4.

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French Gravel Rally Championship

Round four of the calendar saw Quentin Ribaud claim his third victory in as many starts with Clio Rally3 at the Rallye Terre de Langres. Co-driven by Loan Biagetti, the 2021 Clio Trophy France Terre title-winner won all the stages in his class to secure tenth place overall, ahead of Jérôme Jacquot - Marielle Grandemange, Pierre Lafay - Benjamin Aubeuf and Victorien Houyelle - Antoine Massé in a sweep of the top four for Clio Rally3. Meanwhile, Clio Rally5’s Ludovic Godard and Matthieu Bole-Richard led a lockout of the top eight for the model in its class.

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French Rally Cup

Clio Rally4 and Clio Rally5 continued their impressive run of success in France. Among the 13 crews participating in the Rallye de Saintonge, Clio Trophy France Terre driver John Laroche and co-driver Ronan Choucroun won in Rally4 and finished sixth overall. Still on the roads of Saintes, Jonathan Baron and Romuald Moine led a sweep of the top seven for Clio Rally5 in its category.

Meanwhile, Clio Rally5 monopolised the top five in its class on Rallye Montagne Noire, where Damien Vaissière and Sébastien Romero finished eighth overall. Sylvain Rouquette and Jean-François Assenat also claimed an outright top-ten finish, while Laurent and Baptiste Thomasset led a one-two for Clio Rally5 on Rallye de Bagnols-les-Bains. Lastly, Pascal Donnadieu and Laurent Delmas won the Rallye de l’Écurie Région Elbeuf, whilst Clio Rally4 excelled on the Martinique Rallye Tour, with Jacques-Antoine and Carène Cabrisseau finishing sixth overall and winning in Rally4.

And elsewhere

Clio Rally4 finished in the overall top-five with Simon Andersson and Ditte Kammersgaard at the KOMO Jubilæum Sprint (Denmark) whilst finishing runner-up in their category, where the Clio Rally5 of Jacob Egholm and Sarah Haulrik finished just off the podium in fourth place.

Nine Clio Rally5s battled in Rally Lana, round four of the Italian Asphalt Rally Championship. The model dominated, securing the top eight places in its class, led by Mattia Perosino and Federico Verna, who were also victorious in the Under-25 category. Fourth in Rally 5, Giorgio Costa Salute and Alessandro Rappoldi claimed a podium finish in the Over-55 category.

Also in Italy, Giacomo Martinelli and Carlotta Dallai led a Clio Rally5 hat-trick at Rally Coppa Città di Lucca, as did Jaroslav Petráš and Petr Jindra Jr at the Silmet Rally Příbram (Czech Republic), where they finished sixth overall in round three of the national rallysprint championship.

In Belgium, Lander and Ruben Depotter also won with Clio Rally5 in the 4/12 category and finished eighth overall on the Rallye Sprint de Solre-Saint-Géry. Run in parallel with the WRC Rally Estonia, the national version of the event finally saw Turkey’s Kerem Kazaz and his Latvian co-driver Andris Mālnieks in the mix with their Clio Rally5 against the Rally4s to take eighth place in EMV4.

Coming up

The Cup, Rally and RX versions will all be in action this weekend. The Clio Cup Series returns to the Nürburgring (28-30 July) for an event combining Clio Cup Europe, Clio Cup France and Clio Cup Mid-Europe. Meanwhile, the all-Clio RX line-up in the French Junior Rallycross Championship heads to Kerlabo (29-30 July) for round five of the season. Last but not least, the Rally di Roma Capitale (28-30 July) is a rally event not to be missed under any circumstances. The Clio Trophy Italia will kick off there, alongside round three of 2023 for the Clio Rally5s in the Italian Junior Rally Championship, as well as the Clio Rally3 and Clio Rally4 crews in the FIA European Rally Championship.