Chauffray and Pieri, crowned!

The Clio Trophy France Asphalte's record field of more than 50 crews promised a spectacular contest, and they were kept even before the start of the proceedings! 

Thomas Chauffray arrived in Morzine with the possibility of clinching the title before the end of the season. The trophy leader and five other competitors received a ten-second penalty before the start for speeding during the recce. Second on SS1 behind Patrick Magnou, the Europe Location driver dropped to ninth place at 11.4 seconds as a result, but he bounced back on the following two timed sectors to take the lead at the end of a morning leg made difficult by the tough choice of tyres due to the weather conditions. 

The afternoon was drier and saw Valentin Ascenzi score a scratch before Thomas Chauffray won an extremely competitive SS5 with the top four within a second of each other after more than ten kilometres of action. Along with stand-in co-driver Anthony Hamard this weekend, Thomas Chauffray did it again on SS6 and SS7 to finish the opening leg with an advantage of 11.3s on Patrick Magnou and 14.2s on Styve Juif. Behind him, Valentin Ascenzi, Tom Pieri and the newcomer Julien Deslauriers also battled for every tenth of a second. 

With the title in sight, Thomas Chauffray let Tom Pieri and Julien Deslauriers claim the first stages on Saturday morning before raising the pace when needed to tackle the decisive loop with a lead of 3.2s. Following the cancellation of SS12 and the allocation of notional times to almost the entire field, the Jean Ragnotti Power Stage even allowed him to take maximum bonus points between Morzine and Montriond-le-Lac.

Now free of any pressure, Thomas Chauffray finished the last stage to seal his victory with a 12.0s margin on Patrick Magnou and a 13.1s lead from Junior Styve Juif. Tom Pieri finished fourth ahead of Julien Deslauriers, fifth at 24.5s for his first appearance. Benjamin Barnouin was sixth, followed by Romain Fostier, Yann Clairay and Nicolas Hebrard, whereas Jérémy Sarhy made it into the top ten in the last kilometres of the event. Mike Souvigné finished 17th overall and took his second consecutive victory in the Gentleman category while Élodie Gines won the Women's category.

Still undefeated in 2022, Thomas Chauffray is now assured of winning the Clio Trophy France Asphalte title, but he will have to show up at the start of the final to be officially crowned. Second in the trophy, Tom Pieri did what he needed to do to guarantee himself first place in the Juniors and be offered an official programme in 2023. This will be operated by the structure that takes the team championship, namely Europe Location, 3P Racing by BHR or Sébastien Loeb Racing Bardahl... The answer to this question will come after the Critérium des Cévennes (27-29 October)!

2022 Rallye Mont-Blanc Morzine

Clio Trophy France Asphalte 
1. Thomas Chauffray – Anthony Hamard 1H58:30.8s
2. Patrick Magnou – Matthieu Belhacène +12.0s
3. Styve Juif – Maxime Biegalke (J) +13.1s
4. Tom Pieri – Amandine Borderie (J) +22.1s
5. Julien Deslauriers – Amandine Brunel +24.5s
6. Benjamin Barnouin – Enzo Mahinc (J) +1:26.6s
7. Romain Fostier – Ophélie Abchiche (J) +1:54.8s
8. Yann Clairay – Quentin Trochu +3:12.0s
9. Nicolas Hebrard – Bastien Dumas +3:40.2s
10. Jérémy Sarhy – Loïc Declerck (J) +3:43.2s
11. Louis Myr – Camille Flajolet (J) +3:45.0s
12. Sébastien Rambaud – Nicolas Febvre (J) +4:07.0s
13. Yannick Francisci – François-Marie Ghelardini (J) +4:10.2s
14. Pierre Paul Baltolu – Gilles Cler (J) +4:27.7s
15. Tristan Pieri – Alizée Pottier (J) +5:23.2s
16. Loïc Pautou – Tom Benedetto +5:30.4s
17. Mike Souvigné – Ann Felke (G) +5:37.4s
18. Jérôme Janny – Clément Gutierrez +5:50.8s
19. Enzo Beschet – Pierrot Rousselet (J) +6:14.5s
20. Élodie Gines – Lisa Tornior (F) +6:24.5s
21. Margot Dupuy – Clio Chambelland (F) +6:50.9s
22. Florian Picchioni – Sarah Filipe +7:26.3s
23. Calvin Lucas – Amandine Houry (J) +7:59.5s
24. Medhi Oddoux – Julien Giroux (J) +8:08.9s
25. Julien Anthérieu – Eddy Jabeneau +8:12.9s
26. Nicolas Favre – Sébastien Garnier +8:15.3s
27. Arthur Roché – Quentin Proust (J) +8:44.8s
28. Allison Viano – Mallaury Sola (J,F) +8:49.0s
29. Jérôme Bonnefoy – Martial Liechty +9:04.1s
30. Matthieu Suzzarini – Sony Postel +9:45.8s
31. Maxence Passaquet – Michel Damian (J) +11:06.7s
32. Franck Giraud – Sylvain Guillaume +11:07.4s
33. Mathieu Bonche – Florian Chardon (J) +11:11.0s
34. Sylvain Janny – Mireille Guy +11:16.1s
35. Gabriel Conti – Vanessa Robert (J) +11:37.2s
36. Charlotte Olea – Cécile Pages (J,F) +11:43.1s
37. Steve D’Angelo – Mathieu Coppa +13:11.9s
38. Alexander Ernst – Jan-Eric Bemmann (J) +13:44.1s
39. Jean-Pierre Lejeune – Geneviève Arnavielhe (G) +14:09.6s
40. Patrick Favre – Clément Certano (G) +15:16.7s
41. Kévin Duc – Séverine Chamiot-Maitral (J) +31:09.3s
Ret. Ugo Girardeau – Julien Bichon +16:39.5s
Ret. Dominique Patenotte – Romain Gandre (G)
Ret. Benjamin Stirling – Antoine Paque (J)
Ret. Éric Royère – Gilbert Dini (G)
Ret. Sébastien Duriez – Sébastien Jeannin (G)
Ret. Valentin Ascenzi – Corentin Silvestre (J) 
Ret. Yoan Corberand – Emeline Faivre 
Ret. Alex Duc – Yann Duc (J)
Ret. Enzo Lucotte – Manon Deliot (J) 
Ret. Guillaume Bonnet – Cédric Santini (J) 

Clio Trophy France Asphalte - Power Stage Jean Ragnotti - Teams standings - Challenge Réseau Renault