FIA World Rally Championship

The FIA World Rally Championship rounds held in August were most successful for Clio Rally4 and Clio Rally5, which were victorious in their respective classes at Ypres Rally Belgium with Tom Rensonnet - Loïc Dumont and Casper Nielsen - Ward Hanssens.

Returning from injury, Tom Rensonnet battled with the Clio Rally4 of Gilles Pyck - Emile Mourisse before taking the lead on SS11. The Belgian driver maintained his advantage to win the class by 44.9s, winning the Belgian Junior Championship category and beating the four-wheel drive-winning car in WRC3 in the process. Meanwhile, Casper Nielsen led a Clio Rally5 sweep of the top five in RC5 to score the eleventh Clio Rally5 victory in twelve world championship appearances.

Two weeks earlier, Vitalii Antonov and Christiaan van der Rijsen won 16 stages of Secto Rally Finland in RC5 before crashing out after battling with competitors in the superior categories.

Clio Trophy Spain

Round two of the Clio Trophy Spain, the Rally Blendio Memorial Cristian López Herrero was won by the duo of Unai de La Dehesa and Alain Peña by just 0.3s over Juan Manuel Mañá - David Fernández. Sergio López and Carlos Cancela completed the podium after the accident in SS5 of Carlos Rodríguez and Esther Gutiérrez, who won the first meeting of the season. With the victory, Unai de La Dehesa takes the lead in the general classification by eleven points over Juan Manuel Mañá and fifteen ahead of Carlos Rodríguez ahead of the next round, Rally Blendio Princesa de Asturias Ciudad de Oviedo (8-10 September).

Elsewhere…

In the French Rally Cup, Clio Rally4 and Clio Rally5 scored a double win at the Rallye des Vins de Vouvray with Éric Mauduit - Magali Duret and Thomas Gaume - Armand Gaudard, as well as at the Rallye des 12 Travaux d’Hercule, with Nicolas Lathion - Maxence Cornuau and Philippe Rageau - Alexandra Rageau. Meanwhile, Clio Rally5 had a string of successes with Julien Botella - Bernard Cruveille at the Rallye du Gap Racing, Maxime Dupuy - Zakariaoù Omarjee on Rallye d’Autun La Châtaigne, Michel Reboul - Enzo Clamens at Rallye du Pays Saint-Affricain, Louis Myr - Camille Flajolet at Rallye du Boulonnais and Sylvain Fouteret - Fabien Moreau on the Rallye de Fourmies-en-Avesnois.

Class winner in the World Rally Championship this past weekend, Danish driver Casper Nielsen, with co-driver Jasper Maelfait, took category honours at the Condruzien Sprint Rally (Belgium), finishing fifth overall and first in the 4/13 class with Clio Rally5. Other triumphs included Arnaldo Borghi - Stefano Zanni on Rally di Salsomaggiore Terme (Italy), Marco Zanin - Christian Camazzola on Rally Città di Scorzè (Italy), Mihai Dumitrescu - Andrei Mitrașcă on Raliul Moldovei Bacăului (Romania) or Jiří Hladík - Richard Lasevič on Rally Fulnek-Odry (Czech Republic).

Clio Rally4 was not to be outdone, with a win in its class at Rajd Rzeszowski, where Grzegorz Bonder and Kamil Heller also finished second in the Polish 2WD Rally Championship. The model also obtained a double podium with Miguel Caires - João Miguel Sousa, third in the RC4 and the Madeira 2WD Championship on Rali Vinho da Madeira (Portugal). Lastly, the protégés of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Challenge Program excelled behind the wheel of Clio Rally4 in the Varaosaexpert Ralli (Finland), where Yuki Yamamoto and Miika Teiskonen led a sweep of the podium in Class 32 and finished third overall.

Outside Europe, Javier Arce and Mario Acosta led Clio Rally5 to victory in their class at Rally de Ica (Peru).

Coming up

After three different winners in its first three meetings, the Clio Trophy France Terre will return to action this week on the Rallye Terre de Lozère (26-28 August), with twenty-nine crews entered. Three Clio Rally4s, including the factory Clio Rally4 of Quentin Ribaud, will also be on the starting line for the French 2WD Gravel Rally Championship.

The Italian Junior Rally Championship, which is contested exclusively with Clio Rally5, could see a turning point in the penultimate round of the season at Rally 1000 Miglia (August 26-28). Alessandro Casella heads to the event atop the general classification, but Davide Nicelli and Mattia Zanin are still in the hunt ahead of the final two rounds.

With four wins from four events, Argentina’s Paulo Soria will attempt to seal his Clio Trophy by Toksport WRT crown on the Barum Czech Rally Zlín (26-28 August). Among his rivals, Spain’s Sergio Fuentes and Italy’s Giorgio Cogni hope to wrest the crown from him in the double points final. The Czech asphalt will also play host to four Clio Rally4s, including that of Italy’s Andrea Mabellini, who is in contention for the FIA ERC4 and FIA ERC4 Junior titles after his win in Italy.

On the other side of the Atlantic, several Clio Rally5s will compete at Rally Sierra Juárez in the penultimate round of the FIA NACAM Rally Championship, where Renault cars are in the thick of the race for the FIA NACAM4 and FIA NACAM4 Junior titles.

Photos : Timothy David & Davy Degryse