French Rally Cup

Clio Rally4 and Clio Rally5 dominated their respective categories on the final event of the French Rally Cup calendar in Châteauroux.

Jean-Sébastien Vigion and Yannick Roché immediately took their Clio Rally4 to the sharp end of the RC4 classification before winning seven of the eight stages to win by 1:42.5s. The crew also finished runner-up in the two-wheel-drive category. Meanwhile, Tom and Frédéric Vauclare monopolised the best times in RC5. With their performance, the duo led a Clio Rally5 one-two-three, ahead of Sylvain Alanore & Anthony Gouin and Jonathan Grande & Sandrine Guirado, while finishing fifth in the Junior category.

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FIA World Rally Championship

Clio Rally5 continues to excel on all fronts, as demonstrated by the duo of Paolo Raviglione and Vincenzo Torricelli on RallyRACC - Rally de España. The Italians won by more than four minutes, extending the incredible run of world championship success that began when the model first appeared in competition on Rally Guanajuato Mexico in early 2020. Clio Rally5 now has seven wins from as many starts in the RC5 class of the FIA World Rally Championship events following wins in Mexico, Sardinia and Monza in 2020, and Monte Carlo, Croatia and Belgium this year.

Clio Rally Trophy Turkey

The suspense remains intact in the Clio Rally Trophy Turkey after round four of the season on the Ege Rallisi held on the asphalt roads around Izmir.

Mehmet Besler hit the ground running by winning both stages of the first leg to build up a lead of almost thirty seconds. The 2005 Turkish champion continued his momentum the next day with several top ten finishes - including two sixth places overall - to seal his victory with a 1:34.2s lead. The only man to deny the winner a clean sweep by being the fastest on SS4, Çelik Çağlayan claimed second from Nebil Erbil in the final timed sector of the rally, whilst Tuncer Sancakli and Efe Unver completed the top five.

With this second consecutive win and an eighth place in the general classification, Mehmet Besler gets back in contention while Çelik Çağlayan still leads the trophy ahead of Nebil Erbil.

Next round: Kocaeli Rallisi (13-14 November)

Elsewhere...

Clio Rally5 enjoyed a successful weekend across Europe, including a fine one-two finish in the Czech Republic with Filip Ocelka & Jaroslav Blažek winning ahead of Jiří Hladík &Karel Voltner in their class on Rally Morava. Meanwhile, Xavier Dekeyser & Nele Tassaert took top honours in the RC5 category at the Sezoensrally (Belgium), as did Nuno Coelho & Rafael Paiva at the Rali Vidreiro (Portugal) and José Alvarez Celis & Arsenio Mateos Diaz at the Montaña Central Rally (Spain)

Coming up

This week, four Clio Rally4s will be at the start of Rally Hungary (22-24 October). With Ola Nore Jr and Patrik Herczig in the Toksport WRT team, Jean-Baptiste Franceschi will look to consolidate his lead in FIA ERC3 and FIA ERC3 Junior Championship while Anthony Fotia will be making his debut on the European scene with the CHL Sport Auto team. The same event will host the Clio Trophy by Toksport WRT final round, where Andrea Mabellini, Paulo Soria, Ghjvuanni Rossi and Bastien Bergounhe will compete for the first-ever title in the category.

Staying with rallying, the Clio Trophy Swiss will wrap up its season on the Rallye International du Valais (21-23 October). Jérémie Toedtli has already won the title and Swiss Junior Rally Championship, but several top places will still be up for grabs on the roads around Sion.

Lastly, the Clio RXs in the French Junior FFSA Rallycross Championship will compete one last time this season on the Circuit de Faleyras (23-24 October). David Bouet will go into this decisive meeting with a numerical advantage, but his rivals promise to pull out all the stops in the final battle of 2021!

Photos 1 & 2: DPPI / Bastien Roux
Photos 3 & 4: Clio Rally Trophy Turkey