FIA World Rally Championship

Clio Rally5 scored its 19th victory in the RC5 category on Rally Chile Bio Bío by winning all the special stages on the course around Concepción. Dominating the action from the outset, the Peruvian duo of Javier Arce and Mario Acosta won comfortably ahead of their countrymen Wilson and Jhony Garay to lead another one-two finish on the world scene.

Clio Trophy France Asphalte

Benjamin Barnouin ended the Clio Trophy France Asphalte season on a high with victory on Rallye Cœur de France. Already a winner in Antibes, the 3P Racing by GMC Compétition driver co-driven by Romain Garel won by just half a second from Yoan Corberand and Jessika Lepretre. Julien Deslauriers and Amandine Brunel completed the podium in a season finale that saw Sébastien Loeb Racing take the Team title. Arthur Pelamourgues, Mike Souvigné and Margot Dupuy are the other category title winners in the Clio Trophy France Asphalte, which will return next year with a similar format.

More information here.

French Rally Championship

Also on the Rallye Cœur de France, the roads of the Loir-et-Cher region saw Clio Rally3 continue its flawless run in the French Rally Championship with another class win for Thomas and Pauline Chauffray, who also won in the Michelin Trophy. Clio Rally4 also excelled in its class with a sweep of the top three led by Styve Juif and Maxime Biegalke. Lastly, Margot Dupuy led Clio Rally5 to victory by more than 30 minutes in round seven of the French Women’s Rally Championship.

Clio Trophy Canarias

Local driver Noé Armas claimed his second Clio Trophy Canarias victory of the year on Rallye Villa de Teror. For this first round after the summer break, the Spaniard co-driven by Daniel Sosa made the most of his knowledge to return to his winning ways five months after the trophy’s inaugural round. Thanks to this result, Noé Armas is now two points adrift of the general classification leader, Héctor Maderos, who was third this weekend. The race for the title continues on Rally Isla de Tenerife (13-14 October), with the leading quartet covered by just nine points.

More information here.

Italian Junior Rally Championship

The Clio Rally5s prepared by Motorsport Italia for ACI Team Italia were in action on Rally Sanremo in round five of the Campionato Italiano Assoluto Rally Junior. Marco Zanin and Massimo Moriconi scored their maiden success of the season when they moved up from third to first place on the final stage to win by 2.4 seconds from Igor Iani and Manuel Fenoli. Although he saw victory slip away in the last kilometres, Igor Iani is now just 15 points behind Davide Pesavento, who finished fifth after being penalised for an early check-in, ahead of the season finale on Rally di Monza (1- 3 December).

More information here.

Clio Trophy Italia

Rallye Sanremo also hosted round three of Clio Trophy Italia. Alberto Orengo and Carola Villati took advantage of their rivals’ retirements before SS6 to inherit the lead and win comfortably. This success sees Alberto Orengo close the gap to leader Edoardo De Antoni, who still tops the points table despite his misfortunes this weekend. Next up for the transalpine competitors is the Rally del Lazio Cassino (27-29 October).

And elsewhere

After claiming an overall podium on their Clio Rally3 debut, Carsten Mohe and Alexander Hirsch took another class win on the ADAC Rallye Stemweder Berg, finishing ninth in this round of the German Rally Championship.

Clio Rally4 also excelled, winning the Leiria Gold Challenge in Portugal in the hands of Gonçalo Henriques. The model also won in France on the Rallye de l’Alsace Bossue with Nicolas Miclo and Brice Pierrat and on the Rallye du Pays Vençois with Didier Dalmasso and Xavier Blanc. On these same events, Clio Rally5 dominated its class, respectively, with Jérôme Janny - Virginie Jozefiak and Jérémy Riu - Marc Bernardi. Elsewhere, Maxime Fourmaux and Emma Pierrine led a lockout of the top five on Rallye Charlemagne.

In Italy, Clio Rally4 won with Stefano Marangon and Luca Silvi, seventh overall on Rally delle Palme, where Clio Rally5 triumphed with Andrea Saredi and Alex Colombo, as it did on Rally Città di Pistoia with Massimiliano Cecchini and Jary Cavaciocchi.

Other Clio Rally5 victories included René Demarteau and Dimitri Jungers on Boucles Condruziennes (Belgium), Vjekoslav Čičko and Eugen Kokolić on Rally Poreč (Croatia) and Andrea De Nunzio and Sara Nico on New Rally del Ticino (Switzerland). In Romania, Sebastian Scîrlet and Eduard Robert Zamfirache won the Clio Rally5 Challenge in their national championship for the sixth time in as many starts. Meanwhile, Jaroslav Petráš and Petr Jindra Jr. claimed another win to take them one step closer to the RC5 Czech Rallysprint title on Rally Morava.

Lastly, Gert Marboe Jensen and Erik Larsen won overall with their Clio Rally5 on the Short Rally Stoholm (Denmark). The long version of the event saw the car driven by Kasper Nyman Andersen and Claus Kammersgaard win in the RC5 class. The duo sealed sixth place overall in the Danish Championship and finished as the highest-placed two-wheel drive crew.

Coming up

This week, the Clio Trophy France Terre concludes on Rallye Terre des Cardabelles. While Jean-Sébastien Vigion has only to start to secure the title, the battle will rage on in the Junior and Teams categories, where an official programme 2024 will be to play for. Seven Clio Rally3s and one Clio Rally4 will also be competing in Millau. Also in rallying, the Rallye Tierra de Madrid will host round four of Clio Trophy Spain Tierra, where Ramón Cornet could take a giant step towards the crown. The Clio Cup Series heads to Circuit Paul Ricard for the tenth meeting of the season. Forty-eight competitors from Clio Cup España, Clio Cup France and Clio Cup Italia will battle, and some front-runners could clinch their titles.