Yet to win in a season in which they have finished well up the classification on more than one occasion, Johan Notargiacomo and his co-driver Marine Delon made all the running in the first few specials. Feeling right at home on roads he loves, the Savoie driver made his local knowledge count, winning three of the opening day’s five stages to open out a significant lead over the Trophy-chasing crews of Axel Garcia/Fabien Pomares and Florian Bernardi/Xavier Castex.

His luck ran out in Saturday’s opening stage, however, with a broken universal joint forcing him to retire. Axel Garcia then dominated proceedings to move into the lead, and despite a stirring late charge by Florian Bernardi, it was the man from Herault who came home first. Yet the day’s drama was far from over, with the winner later being disqualified for a technical infringement detected in his Twingo Renaultsport R1. Just a few weeks on from his win in the Rallye du Rouergue, Florian Bernardi was thus awarded the 25 points, with Simon and Julie Lebiez and Gabriel Lieffroy and Laurine Ehrhardt taking second and third behind him as they featured on the podium for the first time this season.

Florian Bernardi now leads the Twingo R1 France Trophy standings by 10 points from Axel Garcia with just two rounds of the season remaining.

Florian Bernardi: “It was a difficult weekend because we couldn’t find our usual pace, especially on day one. We didn’t overdo it, though, or try to find out how everyone else was doing. We lost about 30 seconds on Saturday because of a bad tyre choice. We then went on the attack and got back to within five seconds of Axel in the overall classification. I feel sorry for him, though this victory does take us to the top of the overall standings. It’s between me and him now, and it promises to be a great end to the championship.”

Twingo R1 France Trophy – Mont-Blanc – Final standings
1. Florian Bernardi – Xavier Castex 2:22:17.8
2. Simon Lebiez – Julie Lebiez +1:14.7
3. Gabriel Lieffroy - Laurine Ehrhardt +1:37.2
4. Olivier Floret - Vincent Groulier +2:10.8
5. Laurent Pellier - Alexandre Dewaele +2:36.5
6. Jean Jouines - Christopher Guieu +4:41.9
7. Nelson Lukes - Giulia Cresta +4:43.9
8. Terry Flob - Sébastien Poujol +7:07.8
9. Taymoor Marar - Damien Augustin +22:33.8

Twingo R1 France Trophy standings (after round four of six)
1. Florian Bernardi 71 points
2. Axel Garcia 61 points
3. Simon Lebiez 38 points
4. Gabriel Lieffroy 37 points
5. Laurent Pellier 33 points
6. Olivier Floret 30 points…

NB: The current provisional championship standings do not take into account the following stipulation in the Twingo R1 Trophy rules: “The crew with the most points shall be declared the winner. Only the five best results shall count in the final Twingo R1 France Trophy and French Junior Rally Championship standings.”