French Rally Championship

Clio Rally3, Clio Rally4 and Clio Rally5 all starred at the Rallye Aveyron Rouergue Occitanie, round five of the French Rally Championship. Already victorious with Clio Rally5 a year ago in Rodez, Benjamin and Florence Stirling claimed their second win and third podium in as many starts with the official Castrol Clio Rally3. The Sébastien Loeb Racing crew completed a grand slam of stage wins to finish just outside the overall top ten and lead a 1-2 for Clio Rally3 in its class, ahead Jean-Baptiste Daune and Nicolas Valici.

Meanwhile, Quentin Ribaud and Loan Biagetti won in their Clio Rally4. The Fun Meca Sport duo took advantage of recent upgrades to the model to win their class and the Trophée Michelin Amateurs despite the challenging conditions and an unfavourable starting position. Lastly, Julien Deslauriers Sablonnière and Amandine Brunel became the third different winning crew in Clio Trophy France Asphalte this season, ahead of juniors Samuel Lay and Lucas Zielinski. Fourth despite a wheel change in a special stage, Arthur Pelamourgues reclaims the lead in the general classification heading to Rallye Mont-Blanc Morzine (5-7 September).

Benjamin Stirling : " We were delighted with our weekend. We had a great time again with the Clio Rally3 and we were pleased with our times in the dry. We worked on the setup to adjust it to our liking, and we’re starting to find something that suits us. We made up some ground on the GTs on Saturday when the rain came. Like at Le Touquet and the Vosges, we saw how easy, efficient and fast the car is in tricky conditions. We finished several times in the overall top ten before putting on a four-wheel drive show in the Rodez super-stage. It’s always a pleasure to work with Alpine Racing and Sébastien Loeb Racing and I want to thank everyone for their hard work and we can’t wait to get back in the car and prepare for Mont-Blanc !"

Quentin Ribaud : "My return to Clio Rally4 went well, despite my lack of testing and only the shakedown to get back into the swing of things, which was a wet one at that ! The recent changes made to the car are great and extremely efficient. The gear changes are fantastic, and the engine works like clockwork. We started far behind on Friday. The road was much worse for us than the Stellantis’ on the first run, and we also lost around ten seconds when we caught up with a competitor on the longest special stage. Given these conditions, the result is all the more pleasing".

More information here.

FIA European Rally Championship

Clio Rally3 scored a European podium result on Rally Estonia. The local duo of Joosep Ralf Nõgene and Aleks Lesk battled at the sharp end of the order with two fastest times and 11 further top-three finishes on the 14 special stages. With the fastest times in Kanepi and Otepää, the Estonian finished third in the RC3 and FIA ERC3 classes against the class tenors on the continental scene. The duo also finished third in the EMV3 category and seventh overall in the Estonian Championship.

Clio Trophy Spain Asfalto

The Clio Trophy Spain Asfalto has also reached the halfway mark in the season this past weekend, with 13 crews competing on the Rally Recalvi Rías Baixas. Avoiding the pitfalls encountered by the early leaders, Gabriel Gándara and co-driver Alejandro Vaqueiro scored their first victory at the end of their fierce duel with Javier Cañada and Aday Ortiz. Nicolás Cabanes and Javier Moltó completed the podium. With the win, the Canarians are now level on points at the top of the trophy with Juan Carlos Fernández and Óscar Arranz, who retired. Clio Trophy Spain Asfalto returns at the Rally Princesa de Asturias (6-7 September).

More information here.

French Junior Rallycross Championship

Twice runner-up this season, Kelig Gouesbet went one better at Pont-de-Ruan to claim his first success in rallycross with Clio RX. Winner of the intermediate classification, the Breton did all that was need in his semi-final and in the final to seal his first victory ahead of Mélanie Lefrançois and Chanel Launay. His performance, combined with the stumble of his teammate Valentin Lumet, sees him now just five points adrift of the championship lead ahead of the Kerlabo meeting (27-28 July).

More information here.

French Rally Cup

In France, Clio Rally3 and Clio Rally5 also won at the Rallye Suisse Normande, respectively with Christophe Gouville - Anthony Hamard and Pascal Donnadieu - Lucas Lamaire. Clio Rally3 also won at the Rallye de Bourgogne Côte Chalonnaise in the hands of Thierry Cassard and Mathéo Terret. The same event saw Clio Rally4 take a podium finish in its class with Sébastien Bernollin and Damien Denizot. At the same time, Axel Delaporte and Clémence Marechal led a Clio Rally5 sweep of the top five.

Clio Rally4 and Clio Rally5 scored two double wins, one at Rallye des 4 Cantons with the duos of Thomas Vergines - Gabriel Marchive and Quentin Dumoulin - Nathalie Bertrand, the other at Rallye de Saint-Sornin-Leulac with Frédéric Meurant - Kévin Aumeunier and Julien Borderie - Benoît Serres. Finally, Henrick Jullien and Sonia Burais led Clio Rally5 to victory on Rallye de Saint-Marcellin, as did David and Théo Valomet on Rallye de la Côte Roannaise.

And elsewhere…

Clio Rally3 also won in Belgium, with Jeroen Vanhoutte and Shakira Mahieu taking victory in 3G at the Shortrally TBR, where Stijn Naert and Steven Ramboer led a lockout of the podium for Clio Rally5 in 2D. Clio Rally5 also impressed on the national scene in Jordan, with the Lebanese duo of Shadi El Fakih and Samer Sfeir winning their category for the third time in succession. The Clio Rally5 of Fortunato Di Fonzo and Jacopo Moro also won at the Rally del Matese e del Medio Volturno (Italy).