Clio Cup Series

Round five of the Clio Cup Series provided two hotly contested races at the Hungaroring. Frenchman Anthony Jurado (Milan Compétition) won on Saturday before Gabriele Torelli (Rangoni Corse) replied on Sunday to stay in control of Clio Cup Europe and Clio Cup Mid-Europe. Meanwhile, Nikola Miljkovic (Tempo Racing Team) and Adrian Schimpf (AST Competition) shared the spoils in the Challengers Cup while Luca Franca (MC Motortecnica) won both races among the Racers. David Pouget (GPA Racing) finished runner-up in both races to extend his lead in the Clio Cup Series heading into the next round at Misano (14-16 July).

More information here.

FIA European Rally Championship

Clio Rally4 scored another double victory on the gravel stages of Rally Liepāja, thanks to Ola Nore and Torstein Eriksen. The Norwegian, who won last month in Poland, doubled his tally in FIA ERC4 and FIA Junior ERC after Japan’s Yuki Yamamoto retired in the penultimate stage. With this triumph, the AMD Motorsport driver takes command of the ERC4 general classification and extends his lead in Junior ERC. Meanwhile, Paulo Soria and Sergiu Itu continued their learning process with Clio Rally3 and showed their improvement, finishing just 13.4 seconds off the podium in ERC3.

More information here.

Italian Junior Rally Championship

The San Marino Rally hosted round two of the Campionato Italiano Assoluto Rally Junior with its all-Clio Rally5 field. After winning on the tarmac at the start of the season, Davide Pesavento and Marco Frigo continued their winning form on gravel, beating Geronimo and Francesca Nerobutto by 19.8 seconds. Filippo Peduzzi and Gabriel Morales completed the podium. Thanks to this second consecutive victory, Davide Pesavento now has a 22-point lead over the chase group led by Geronimo Nerobutto, who is closely followed by Riccardo Pederzani and Igor Iani heading to Rally di Roma Capitale (29-30 July).

More information here.

And elsewhere

The three rally versions of the fifth-generation Clio all won at the Rallye Cieux Monts de Blond, with Jérémy Brissiaud - Melvin Fraigne winning wi Clio Rally3, Frédéric Meurant - Kévin Aumeunier leading a one-two finish with Clio Rally4 and a sweep of the top five led by Éric Sauteur - Cindy Millac with Clio Rally5.

Staying in France, Clio Rally4 took Myriam Peretti and Laura Salini to victory in round four of the French Women’s Rally Championship on the Rallye Vosges Grand Est. Yoan Corberand and co-driver Jessika Lepretre, who won on the same event with Clio Rally5, were also finished runner-up in the French Two-Wheel Drive Championship, ahead of the Clio of Julien Bregeon and Amélie Arrivé. Clio Rally5 scored further successes in the French Cup, with Mathias Dubouloz - Dimitri Tognarelli on the Rallye des Bornes, Sylvain Rouquette - Jérôme Codemo on the Rallye du Gard, Pierre-Paul Baltolu - Mathieu Tyran on the Rallye d’Eccica Suaredda and Laurent Thomasset - Baptiste Thomasset on the Rallye du Brionnais.

In Portugal, Clio Rally4 and Clio Rally5 won their respective categories on Rally de Lisboa thanks to the pairings of Henrique Moniz - Jorge Diniz and João Colaço - Alexandre Rodrigues. The two models were also victorious in round three of the Dutch championship on the Vechtdal Rally, with Ceriel Klein Kromhof - Marc Hanstede and Willem Wouter Overbeek - Christiaan van der Rijsen.

Clio Rally5 also won in its class with Catherine Rădulescu - Bogdan Mineai on the Zagreb Delta Rally (Croatia), Tomáš Večerka - Michal Cibulka on Rally Hustopeče (Czech Republic), Javier Alonso - Mayte González on Rally Villa de Granadilla (Spain) and José Alberto and José Antonio López on Rally Ourense Recalvi (Spain). There were also three successes in Italy with Stefano Fabiani - Emanuele Bucarelli on Rally di Reggello, Alessandro D’Avelli - Graziano Sigismondi on Rally Terra di Argil and Fabrizio Martinis - Valentina Boi on Rally Valli della Carnia.

Coming up

This week the Clio RXs in the French Junior Rallycross Championship return to the track for round three of their calendar at Châteauroux. New overall leader Valentin Lumet will aim to extend his lead despite the expected fightback from his rivals.