Clio Cup Series

Gabriele Torelli (Rangoni Corse) and David Pouget (GPA Racing) shared the honours at Hockenheim in round three of the Clio Cup Series. The Italian won on Saturday to take the lead in Clio Cup France, while the reigning champion got back on track on Sunday with his first win of the year. Anthony Jurado (Rangoni Corse) kept his lead in the Clio Cup Series, and Lorenzo Van Riet (Rangoni Corse) became the early leader in Clio Cup in Mid-Europe. The action now heads to Misano this weekend for the next round on the calendar.

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FIA World Rally Championship

Clio Rally3 claimed another FIA World Rally Championship podium finish on the Vodafone Rally de Portugal. Matteo Chatillon and Maxence Cornuau caused quite a stir at round five of the calendar, finishing runners-up in WRC3, just 48.9s behind the winners despite a one-minute penalty. Thanks to this performance punctuated by an overall top 20 finish, the ARL Sport crew is now just seven points behind the leaders in the title race. The pair are also ahead of the other Clio Rally3 of Ghjuvanni Rossi and Kylian Sarmezan, who finished fifth this weekend. Tom Pieri and Alexis Maillefert, who also made their bones in the Clio Rally5 trophies, impressed as well as they added to the ten Clio Rally3 best times in the 19 stages contested in the rally before retiring.

Portuguese Rally Championship

The first leg of the Vodafone Rally de Portugal also hosted round four of the Portuguese Rally Championship. Defending two-wheel drive national champion, Gonçalo Henriques struck hard in his title defense, winning by a margin of more than three minutes in his Clio Rally4. This success, achieved with co-driver Inês Veiga, puts him back in the lead of the general classification heading into the second half of the season.

French Rally Championship

Clio Rally3 and Clio Rally5 claimed new successes during the fourth French Rally Championship calendar stop at the Rallye Antibes Côte d’Azur. Jean-Baptiste Daune and Morgan Gaillot led Clio Rally3 to victory by more than seven minutes from their nearest rivals in Rally3, while Pascal and Caroline Bérard in their Clio Rally5 led a lockout of the top four in its category.

French Rally Cup

Renault was victorious on several other rally fronts. Romuald Lézeau and Clément Crétin finished fourth overall and first in Rally3 with Clio Rally3 on the Rallye du Saint-Emilion, where Éric Sauteur and Cindy Millac led a sweep of the top five for Clio Rally5 in its class. The four-wheel drive car also won with Thierry Cassard and Mathéo Terret on the Rallye de Bligny-sur-Ouche, an event in which Clio Rally5 won in the hands of Axel Delaporte and Clémence Marechal. The Rallye International Ain-Jura also saw Clio wins for Damien Gouttebroze and Tommy Aurousseau in Rally3 and Maxime Fourmaux and Emma Pierrine in Rally5.

On Reunion Island, Clio Rally3 scored a category one-two finish on the Rallye Petite-Île - Sud Sauvage thanks to the duos of Dominique Hoarau - William Jourlin and Farouk Moullan - Yannick Clain. Once again, Clio Rally5 set the pace at the same event, with Samuel Hoarau and Stéphane Duverger leading in a sweep of the Rally5 podium. Lastly, there were successes for three drivers competing in Clio Trophy France : Philippe Janvier with Julie Derory on the Rallye de la Coutellerie et du Tire-Bouchon, Paul Dachicourt with his sister Adèle on the Rallye de Dieppe Normandie, and Yoan Corberand with Amélie Pierron on the Rallye Ajolais.

And elsewhere…

Clio Rally3 made another impressive showing in Poland, with Hubert Kowalczyk and Dawid Potępa finishing third overall and taking victory in PRO1 on the tarmac of Rally Sobótka. Performing well throughout the event, the Polish crew even set the best time on SS5 Szczepanów against the Rally2 field.

Clio Rally5 also added to its list of successes in Spain, with Nicolás Cabanes and Andrea Vera winning at Rally Ciutat de Gandía and Marcos Rodríguez and Daniel Rodríguez on Rally Mariña Lucense. Meanwhile, Emanuele and Giuseppe La Torre won Rally5 at the Targa Florio (Italy), as did Tomáš Večerka and Michal Cibulka at Rally Vipavska dolina (Slovenia) and Shadi El Fakih and Samer Sfeir at the Spring Rally, launching the Lebanese Championship.

Eliott Delecour and Mathieu Coppa claimed their second victory in as many starts in the trophy dedicated to Clio Rally5 in the Romanian Rally Championship. At the Raliul Argeșului, the son of the 1993 world rally championship runner-up finished 13th overall and second among the Juniors, where he finished only 34.4s behind a Rally4.

Coming up

This week, the Clio Cup Series heads to the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in Italy for round four of the season, with 47 cars entered. The event will also launch the Clio Cup Italia season and host the third Clio Cup España meeting. On the special stages, Sezoensrally will be the venue for round two of Clio Trophy Belgium. At the same time, Rally dell’Adriatico will host the second meeting of the Italian Junior Rally Championship, with its service park made up entirely of Clio Rally5s.