Clio Cup Series

Alex Royo (Team VRT) and Nico Abella (Chefo Sport) stamped their mark on the sixth meeting of the season with a race win each at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia to move clear at the top of the Clio Cup Spain ahead of the final stretch this autumn. The two drivers now respectively lead the Clio Cup Spain and the Challengers Cup while Fabien Julia (LR Performance) took a big step towards the Gentlemen Drivers Cup title with another brace of victories.

FIA ERC

Despite a tough weekend on Rajd Polski - Rally Poland, which ended with the sixth place of the duo Martin László - Dávid Berendi, Clio Rally4 remains at the centre of the fight for the FIA ERC4 Junior title. Thanks to their performance, the Hungarian team climbed to third place in the overall general classification. Meanwhile, Italy’s Andrea Mabellini is now second in the FIA ERC4, just a point behind the leader despite retiring. At the mid-way point of the season, France’s Anthony Fotia and Argentina’s Paulo Soria complete the top five in the championship.

French Rally Championship

With three class wins to launch his official Clio Rally4 programme, Romain Di-Fante was less successful on the Rallye Vosges Grand Est. Despite a minor setback on SS3, the driver from Nice and co-driver Patrick Chiappe finished second overall in the FFSA French two-wheel drive Rally Championship and are now 20 points clear in the classification. Second and third in the French Women’s Championship, Pauline Dalmasso (Clio Rally4) and Élodie Gines (Clio Rally5) finished in the top six overall in the two-wheel-drive classification. Lastly, Sylvain Janny also took advantage of his RC5 success to put his Clio in the top ten before the next round, Rallye Aveyron Rouergue Occitanie.

And elsewhere…

In the French Rally Cup, Clio Rally5 won in its class with Olivier Rodrigues and Julien Goudard on Rallye Haute Vallée de la Loire, but also Romain Piot and Ludivine Ducaruge on Rallye Régional du Brionnais. In Belgium, Aaron Duville - Stijn De Vleeschauwer and Sébastien Brancart - Colin Barvaux gave Clio Rally5 a one-two finish in 4/12 on Rallye de la Haute Senne, while Nikolai Bruyneel - Jasper Maelfait and Niels Reynvoet - Diederik Pattyn finished fourth in their category on Rally van Wervik.

In Italy, Mattia Secchi and Duilio Fondra won in Rally5/R1 at the Coppa Valtellina, where Andrea Saredi - Alex Colombo also led a Clio Rally5 quadruple in Rally5. Also on the same roads, Igor Rainoldi - Daniel Pozzi led Clio Rally4 to second place in its category while the Clio Rally5 of Davide Cibien - Lorenzo Bogo won its class on Rally Bianco Azzurro - Rose’n’Bowl in San Marino.

In Spain, Cristian García and Carmelo Moline caused a stir by winning Rally Barbastro, round three of the Aragon Rally Championship, with Clio Rally4. Clio Rally5 was not to be outdone with Carlos Rodríguez - David Ortega finishing second overall on Rally Alpujarra Oriental in Andalusia, not to mention the class wins of Jorge Cagiao - Amelia Blanco (Clio Rally4) and José Rasilla - Borja Rasilla (Clio Rally5) on Rally Cidade de Narón.

Lastly, Miguel Abrantes - Filipe Carvalho and João Colaço - Tiago Neves scored a one-two in RC5 on Rali de Castelo Branco (Portugal) with Clio Rally5. Nico Knacker - Enrico Flores-Trigo finished fourth in RC4 at the ADAC Rallye Stemweder Berg (Germany), as did Julio Ibarra - José Hurtado on Rally de Ñuble (Chile).

Coming up

This week, the Clio Cup concludes its first half of the season with a return to Zandvoort (17-19 June) for a joint meeting among Clio Cup Europe, Clio Cup France and Clio Cup Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, round two of Clio Trophy Italia comes from Rally della Marca (17-18 June), while Ecuador will be a hotbed of action with the Clio Cup Ecuador races in Yahuarcocha and the Azuay-Cañar special stages in Clio Trophy Ecuador.