FIA World Rally Championship

Already victorious on Rallye Monte-Carlo, Anthony Fotia and Arnaud Dunand took their second victory in two starts on the world stage this season with Clio Rally4. Initially cautious on the daunting roads of the Vodafone Rally de Portugal, the Frenchmen quickly climbed up the order to take the RC4 lead on SS6 against a host of local competitors. The French team completed a grand slam on Saturday and Sunday, winning by more than 23 minutes and 17 best times from 21 stages to finish a superb 25th place in the general classification.

Meanwhile, the duo of Maxime and David Salin continued the incredible unbeaten run of Clio Rally5 that began 26 months ago. Launched in competition at the 2020 Rally Mexico, the model now has nine wins from nine appearances in the FIA World Rally Championship.

FFSA French Rally Championship

Romain Di-Fante and Patrick Chiappe scored their third consecutive victory of the year in their official Clio Rally4 programme. The Naudon Rallye Services crew ran the table, winning all 15 stages of the Rallye Antibes Côte d’Azur by more than 6:30s to finish 12th among several rear-wheel and four-wheel drive cars. With this latest victory, they continue their perfect start to the season and remain in the lead of the French two-wheel drive Rally Championship ahead of the Rallye Vosges Grand Est (9-11 June).

At the same time, Julien Brégeon and Amélie Arrivé finished third in the RC4 category on their Clio Rally4 debut. Rémy Rota - Loan Biagetti and Pauline Dalmasso - Marine Delon made it four Renaults in the top five in RC4.

Clio Trophy France Asphalte

After winning by a whisker in Le Touquet, Thomas and Pauline Chauffray did it again in an exceptional battle with Juniors Tom Pieri - Amandine Borderie on Rallye Antibes Côte d’Azur. With a lead of one-tenth of a second before the final stage, the duo went on to win by 1.2s while Benjamin Stirling - Florence Stirling completed the podium. There was also a great battle in the Women’s category, where Margot Dupuy and Clio Chambelland had the last word while taking third place in the French Women’s Rally Championship behind the Clio Rally4 of Pauline Dalmasso. Finally, Eric Royère scored his second success of the year by dominating the Gentlemen category. In the general classification, Thomas Chauffray now leads Tom Pieri by 16 points before the mid-season meeting at Rallye Aveyron Rouergue Occitanie (7-9 July).

FIA CODASUR Rally Championship

This weekend Renault also took a third consecutive win this season in FIA CODADUR4. After Clio Rally5 successes in Paraguay and Argentina, Uruguay’s Luigi Contin and Federico Rodríguez won again, but this time with Clio Rally4 on Erechim Rally Brasil. Luigi Contin finished sixth overall, fourth in FIA CODASUR and first in the two-wheel drive category. Renault also finished third in FIA CODASUR4 with the Clio Rally5 of Brazilians Luis Eduardo Stedile and Carlos Enrique Morales. The next round will take the competitors to Peru for the Huncayo Rally (July 22-24).

Clio Trophy Ecuador

With ten crews at the start, the Clio Trophy Ecuador’s debut at Rally Chimborazo turned in favour of Diego and Juan Felipe Serrano. Beaten by Juan Carlos Paredes - Daniel Gordillo on SS1, they took the lead in the next timed sector before extending their lead with several overall top ten times. They finished eighth overall and won the first round of the first Clio Rally5 trophy in South America with a 1:22.95s lead over their rivals and a 2:42.01s ahead of Marcelo Toledo and Roque Soria. The next round is Rally Azuay Cañar (June 17).

Elsewhere…

Clio Rally5 won its category in the French Rally Cup with Benoit Denis - François-Xavier Delabarre at the Rallye de Mézidon and on the Rallye de la Vallée du Cher with Thomas Gaume - Armand Godard. Clio Rally4 was also successful with Dominique and Samuel Hoarau on the Rallye du Sud Sauvage.

In the Czech Republic, Filip Ocelka - Jaroslav Blažek led a one-two-three finish for Clio Rally5 in the RC5 category on Rally Český Krumlov, as did Constantin Tudose - Teodor-Gabriel Găină at Raliul Argeșului Catena (Romania). Clio Rally5s did even better in Italy as Michel Della Maddalena - Debora Fancoli led a sweep of the top four on Rally della Valle Intelvi and another lockout of the podium led by Marco Varetto - Vittorio Bianco at Rally Il Grappolo, where Clio Rally4 also won in the hands of Emanuele Rosso - Andrea Ferrari. Lastly, Clio Trophy Belgium leaders Benoit Verlinde and Anton Dupan won out of the eight Clio Rally5s on the ELE Rally in the Netherlands.

Coming up

This week, Clio Trophy Turkey will be in action in round two of the year on the tarmac of Bursa Rally (28-29 May) while the Clio RXs of the French Junior Rallycross Championship will travel to Faleyras for round two of the season.