Clio Trophy Spain

Like Clio Trophy France Asphalte a week earlier, Clio Trophy Spain saw a third different crew take top honours in as many rallies in 2021!

Ten Clio Rally5s lined up for round three of the calendar, Rally de Ourense. Jorge Cagiao set the best time by just 0.3s on SS1 before he ran the table to claim a 28.3s lead on day one, marked by the retirement of Diogo Gago, the winner of the previous round.

With three more stage wins in the seven timed sectors on Saturday, Jorge Cagiao and Amelia Blanco went on to take the win with a 1:12.2s margin of victory over Germán Leal & Pablo Sánchez. Carlos Rodríguez and Antonio Villalba completed the podium after Sergio Francoli retired at the beginning of the second leg while José Javier Pérez & Alberto Espino and Emilio Martí & Lucía Santiago rounded out the top five.

In the general classification, Germán Leal extends his lead to 13 points over Jorge Cagiao and to 31 over Diogo Gago at the mid-way point of the season.

More information here.

Next round: Rally Princesa de Asturias - Ciudad de Oviedo (9-11 September)

Elsewhere...

Clio Rally5 continues to rack up the wins with privateers in the French Rally Cup.

Among the six crews entered in the Rallye National de Saintonge, Loïc Boudaud and Pauline Boyer dominated to win in RC5 with a more than three-minute margin of victory from Sylvain Alanore & Anthony Gouin and Guillaume Roget & Benjamin Dupleix.

Clio Trophy France Asphalte and Clio Trophy France Terre regular Richard Paget also won in his category on the Rallye de 14 juillet, as did Jean Jouines and Sylvain Kukulka on the Rallye de Bagnols-les-Bains. The successes of Jérôme Janny & Anderson Levratti on the Rallye de Printemps, Quentin Saxemard & Sarah Filipe on the Rallye de Matour and of Sylvain Fouteret & Cédric Gilbert on the Rallye des Routes Picardes completed the weekend’s results.

Clio Rally4 also ran strong with the Mexican-Spanish duo of Alejandro Mauro and Daniel Muntadas, finishing just a few seconds outside the top ten on the Rallysprint Cartes in Spain.

Coming up

The Clio Cup Europe enters the second half of its season this week at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola. The battle promises to be intense between the leaders Nicolas Milan and David Pouget but also the new contenders emerging in the most recent races. More than thirty Clio Cups are expected to be in action at the host circuit of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, the Clio RXs will head to the Kerlabo-Cohiniac circuit for round four of the French Junior FFSA Rallycross Championship. With two wins so far in 2021, David Bouet will try to put more daylight between himself and his rivals before the summer break.

On the rally front, the Clio Trophy France Terre will be part of the Rallye Langres Haute-Marne bill, where Quentin Ribaud will aim for a second consecutive victory in front of an increasingly packed service park. Tarmac will be on the programme in the Clio Trophy by Toksport WRT, where the title race remains wide open ahead of round three at Rally di Roma Capitale. Lastly, three Clio Rally4s driven by Jean-Baptiste Franceschi, Ola Jr Nore and Florian Bernardi will also be competing at the same FIA ERC event in Italy.

Pictures : Javier Jimenez