French Rally Championship

Romain Di-Fante contested the second round of his official Clio Rally4 programme on the Rallye Rhône-Charbonnières.

The Naudon Rallye Services driver and co-driver Patrick Chiappe immediately took the lead in their category. They won the five special stages of the first leg before doing it again on the ten timed sectors the following day to win by more than five minutes over their closest rivals. The crew set times that rivalled the best four-wheel drive and RGT entries to finish 14th overall.

Romain Di-Fante and Patrick Chiappe continue their excellent start to the season by taking sole control of the French two-wheel drive Rally Championship heading to the Rallye Antibes Côte d’Azur (20-22 May).

Still at the Rallye Rhône-Charbonnières, Nicolas Crochon and Brice Brun claimed the third step of the podium in the RC4 category, two places ahead of the duo of Cédric Farlay and Virginie Bouchut, which received an invitation to the event after winning the Michelin Rally Tour last year. At the same time, Élodie Gines & Lisa Tornior beat Allison Viano & Patrick Therry in the duel between two Clio Rally5s for RC5 honours. The former duo also finished third in the French Women’s Rally Championship.

Belgian Rally Championship

Just like Romain Di-Fante in France, Gilles Pyck starred in the official Clio Rally4 entered for the Belgian Rally Championship on Rallye de Wallonie.

2021 Clio Trophy Belgium title-winners Gilles Pyck and Emile Mourisse set the best time on all 20 stages of the rally and won by more than four minutes to score an excellent 15th place overall. The duo also took top honours in the Belgian Junior Rally Championship, where they took the championship lead after Tom Rensonnet’s accident. The customer racing department wishes Tom Rensonnet a prompt and speedy recovery.

The next round of Gilles Pyck’s programme will see him back behind the wheel of Clio Rally4 on the FIA World Rally Championship round at Ardeca Ypres Rally (18-21 August).

Clio Trophy Belgium

Three weeks after the season-opener, round two of the Clio Trophy Belgium ended with a podium in the same order on Rallye de Wallonie.

Winners of the TAC Rally, Benoît Verlinde and Anton Dupan took the lead right from the start before having to deal under the attacks of Casper Nielsen and Ward Hanssens. However, the leaders gradually increased their lead whilst the tandem of Jeroen Catelin and Christof Duyck took advantage of a mistake by the Danish duo on SS12 to slot in between the two crews.

Benoît Verlinde then managed his lead and went on for the win with a 1:50.1s margin of victory over Jeroen Catelin, who fended off the return of Casper Nielsen in the rally’s last loop. With this success, Benoît Verlinde consolidates his position as leader of the Clio Trophy Belgium ahead of the Omloop van Vlaanderen (2-3 September).

French Junior Rallycross Championship

Clio RX was also in action for the debut of the French Junior Rallycross Championship and the race to succeed David Bouet in Lessay.

Valentin Lumet sprung a surprise by taking the lead in the intermediate classification on Saturday ahead of Mathieu Fretin and Luc Derrien. Only fourth, pre-event favorite Tom Le Jossec was back to winning ways on Sunday and eventually claimed the victory against Luc Derrien and Valentin Lumet.

Tom Le Jossec takes the lead in the French Junior Rallycross Championship classification. Luc Derrien trails by four points, with Valentin Lumet another ten points behind heading to round two in Faleyras (28-29 May). Dylan Dufas also had an impressive outing, finishing second in Super 1600 with his Clio 5 RX.

Elsewhere…

It was another successful weekend in the French Rally Cup with the victories in RC5 of Ugo Girardeau & Julien Bichon at Rallye du Morbihan, Jean-Claude Pietri & Kylian Sarmezan at Rallye Côte des Nacres - Costa Serena and Damien Vaissière & Sébastien Romero at Rallye du Val d’Agout. Noël Metayer & Gaëlle Duval and Frédéric & Fabien Rubio also won the Rallye de la Guirlande and the Rallye des Vins du Gard respectively in Rally5.

Clio Rally4 also excelled abroad, with Iñaki Narbaiza & Unai Etxeberria finishing second in their category and fourth overall on Rally Lea Artibai (Spain). Alejandro Mauro Sánchez & Diego Sanjuan de Eusebio finished on the podium on Rally Ciutat de Valls (Spain).

Meanwhile, Clio Rally5 won its class and finished tenth overall with Constantin Tudose and Teodor-Gabriel Găină on the Raliul Harghitei round of the Romanian Rally Championship. Other victories included Thomas Andersen & Preben Lønberg Jensen at the Anderup EL Rally (Denmark), Márton Urbán & Johanna Bene at the Eger Rally (Hungary), Luciano Calini & Alessandro Rappoldi at Rally Valli Ossolane (Italy), Miguel Abrantes & Inês Veiga at Rali de Mortágua (Portugal) and Jiří Hladík - Richard Lasevič at the Rentor Rallysprint Kopná (Czech Republic).

Coming up

This week, Clio Trophy France Terre will be back in action on Rallye Terre de Castine (6-8 May). Jean-Paul Monnin will try to extend his lead while Quentin Ribaud will contest the second round of his official programme with Clio Rally4. At the same time, the Clio Cup stars will head to Imola (6-8 May), hosting round two of Clio Cup Europe and the Clio Cup Italia season-opener.

Photo 1: DPPI / Alpine Racing
Photo 2: Pierre Simenel / Rallycross France
Photo 3 & 4 : Clio Trophy Belgium