French Rally Championship

2021 Clio Trophy France Asphalte winner, Romain Di-Fante began his official programme with co-driver Patrick Chiappe, the Naudon Rallye Services team and Renault in the first round of the FFSA French Rally Championship.

After a cautious start, the driver from Nice quickly increased his pace and took the lead in his category on SS2. With five fastest times in six stages, he relegated his closest rival to nearly a minute at the end of the first day before managing his advantage on leg two. He then set two more best times in the morning and three in the afternoon to win by1:41.9s.

Fifteenth overall, he was only beaten by an Alpine A110 Rally in the French two-wheel-drive Rally Championship. Renault also claimed a double podium with Ludovic Godard and Franck Gilliot’s Clio Rally4 finishing third, ahead of the Clio Trophy France Asphalte’s Clio Rally5 driven by Thomas and Pauline Chauffray. As points are awarded by class, Romain Di-Fante and Thomas Chauffray are all square atop the general classification after round one.

Romain Di-Fante’s next appearance with Clio Rally4 will be on the Rallye Charbonnières-Rhône (28-29 April).

Clio Trophy France Asphalte

Last year’s winner of the Rallye Le Touquet - Pas-de-Calais, Thomas Chauffray did it again with Pauline Chauffray by his side this weekend. Victorious ahead of the Junior crews of Tom Pieri - Amandine Borderie and Styve Juif - Maxime Biegalke, the couple also won the Jean Ragnotti Power Stage to score maximum points. Marina Breuil - Mélanie Tendille and Éric Royère - Gilbert Dini respectively won in the Women and Gentlemen categories to complete the list of winners of this first Clio Trophy France Asphalte event before the Rallye Antibes Côte d’Azur (19-22 May).

More information here.

Elsewhere…

Tom Rensonnet and Loïc Dumont took a second victory with Clio Rally4 in the Belgian Junior Rally Championship on the South Belgian Rally. The duo consolidated their lead in the general classification while Jeroen Catelin - Christof Duyck and Xavier Dekeyser - Nele Tassaert made it a Clio Rally5 one-two finish in RC5. Still in Belgium, Benoit Verlinde and Anton Dupan won the 3G class of the Short Rally van Moorslede with Clio Rally5.

In Germany, Nico Knacker and Enrico Flores-Trigo finished runner-up in the RC4 class and fifth overall in the ADAC Rallye Buten un Binnen with Clio Rally4. Clio Rally5 also finished in the overall top ten with Erik Sindermann and Matthias Pätzold winning in RC5.

Clio Rally5 swept the podium in Rally Villa de Santa Brígida’s Class 3, kicking off the Canary Islands Rally Championship with Marcos Martín & Armando Alvarado, Manuel Hernández & David Bethencourt and Gilberto Rodríguez & Ruymán Reyes in that order. In Italy, Nicola Schileo and Flavio Garella also led Clio Rally5 to success in their class on Rally della Val D’Orcia. Meanwhile, Nadia Lafuente and Agustina Figoli led the way in the women’s category with their Clio Rally5 on Rally de Rocha in Uruguay.

Lastly, Clio Rally4 and Clio Rally5 continue to perform well in the French Rally Cup with victories for Sacha Althaus & Lisiane Zbinden and Enzo Beschet & Alexandre Monnin in their respective categories at Rallye de Franche-Comté. Rémy Rota & Loan Biagetti and Benjamin Barnouin & Lionel Avon did the same with both models at Rallye de Haute-Provence. At the same time, Franck and Laetitia Crepey won their class with Clio Rally5 on Rallye de Printemps, as did Émilien and Amaury Sanlaville on Rallye Pays du Gier and Lucas and Chloé Jacoup on Rallye de Bonaguil.

Coming up

Less than two weeks after the start of the FIA European Rally Championship, Andrea Mabellini and Anthony Fotia will contest the second round of their FIA ERC4 programme at the Azores Rally (25-27 March). After his podium finish in Fafe, the Italian is second in the general classification. The contingent of Clio Rally4s will also include Çağlayan Çelik, who won the inaugural Clio Trophy Turkey last year.

Meanwhile, the Clio Trophy by Toksport WRT will begin its second season at the same event with a burgeoning field. Argentina’s Paulo Soria and France’s Ghjuvanni Rossi, who lost to Andrea Mabellini last year, have one goal in mind as they aim for the title but Patrik Herczig, Andrea Mazzocchi, Giorgio Cogni, Sergio Fuentes, Emre Hasbay and Reiner Kuhn will look to deny them!