Saturday race winner at Magny-Cours, David Pouget (GPA Racing) did it again on Sunday, beating Joran Leneutre (JSB Compétition) and Nicolas Milan (Milan Compétition).
At the end of a race under stormy skies, 17-year-old Joran Leneutre scored his first success in the Challengers Cup, while Lionel Viguier (T2CM) took his first win of the season in the Gentlemen Drivers Cup.
Like David Pouget in Clio Cup France, Nico Abella (Chefo Sport) and Marc Guillot (Milan Compétition) also went back-to-back in Clio Cup Spain and Clio Cup Eastern Europe.
With clear skies, David Pouget again beat Nicolas Milan to claim his second pole position of the weekend. Challenger Joran Leneutre achieved the best qualifying result of his Clio Cup career, finishing third ahead of Marc Guillot and Léo Jousset (Milan League).
The sky started to darken as the start approached. David Pouget initially resisted Nicolas Milan’s attacks before giving in at the Adelaide hairpin. At the same time, Joran Leneutre dropped to seventh, while Marc Guillot took advantage of this to move up to third and overtook David Pouget on a first lap finishing behind the safety car after the collision between Léo Jousset and Jerzy Spinkiewicz (Uniq racing).
Nicolas Milan controlled the field at the restart, but the chasing group formed by Marc Guillot, David Pouget and Alexandre Albouy (GPA Racing) kept in touch. Meanwhile Joran Leneutre made a series of overtakes to get back into the top five before overtaking Alexandre Albouy and taking advantage of a Marc Guillot error to take third when it started to rain.
David Pouget and Joran Leneutre kept the frontrunner under pressure under increasingly slippery conditions. Their struggle, however, provided a breather for Nicolas Milan. David Pouget attacked again and found an opening two laps later.
As the rain intensified in the waning minutes of the race, David Pouget took his second win of the weekend, ahead of Challenger Joran Leneutre, who completed his spectacular comeback when he passed Nicolas Milan in the closing corners of the race. Fourth, Marc Guillot was closely followed by Alexandre Albouy and Nico Abella (Chefo Sport), while Alex Lahoz (Cotauto Motorsport) won the intense battle for seventh place over Aurélien Renet (JSB Compétition) and Léo Jousset. Jordi Palomeras (Team VRT) completed the top ten while Lionel Viguier won the Gentlemen Drivers Cup. The Frenchman took the lead at the start, but Mathieu Rigoulet (Vic’Team) reclaimed his spot on lap nine before making a mistake at the start of the final lap.
The competition classifications are suspended pending the results of the scrutineering.
CLIO CUP FRANCE
Overall winner David Pouget also scored the double in Clio Cup France, finishing ahead of Joran Leneutre and Nicolas Milan. The GPA Racing driver increased his lead over Nicolas Milan to 28 points, while Joran Leneutre moved up to third in the overall standings. Joran Leneutre won in the Challengers Cup against Alexandre Albouy and Aurélien Renet and is now only two points behind Alexandre Albouy in this class. Finally, Lionel Viguier took advantage of Mathieu Rigoulet’s mistake on the last lap to take the win. After the race, Mathieu Rigoulet was given a five-second time penalty for gaining an advantage off the track. Pierre Monmaneix (GPA Racing) and Cédric Delcroix (GPA Racing) promoted one place and completed the podium. Despite the incident, Mathieu Rigoulet still has a 33-point lead over Jérémy Bordagaray (Team Borda Rallye) and Lionel Viguier.
CLIO CUP SPAIN
Nico Abella already won the Clio Cup in Spain on Saturday and set up a repeat run on Sunday. The Spaniard passed Alex Royo (Team VRT) for the lead on lap three. He went for the win ahead of Alex Lahoz and Jordi Palomeras, who battled it out for the entire race. It was the same order in the Challengers Cup. Alex Royo finished fourth and still leads the overall standings, but 14 points are the only thing separating the top four. Meanwhile, Alex Lahoz now leads Jordi Palomeras by one point and Nico Abella by four in the Challengers Cup. Thanks to his fourth win in a row over Joaquin Rodrigo (Vearsa Sport), Fabien Julia (LR Performance) now leads the Gentlemen Drivers Cup.
CLIO CUP EASTERN EUROPE
In the Eastern Europe Clio Cup on Saturday, race winner Marc Guillot took a comfortable win on Sunday ahead of Tomas Pekar (Carpek Service) and Andreas Stucki (Stucki Motorsport) to extend his lead in the general classification. Lin Chen Han (Uniq Racing) took advantage of Juuso Panttila (Carpek Service) incident on round five to take his first Clio Cup win in the Challengers Cup, ahead of Henrik Seibel (Carpek Service) and the Finn, and he now has the point -leader in the category. Finally, René Steenmetz took revenge on Stephan Polderman and the two Dutch drivers from Chefo Sport leave this inaugural weekend with a shared lead in the Gentlemen Drivers Cup.
The next meeting on the calendar is in Misano, where the Clio Cup Italia will be in action from June 3-5. This meeting will launch a triple header as it will be immediately followed by Valencia (10-12 June) for the Clio Cup Spain and Zandvoort (17-19 June) for Clio Cup Europe, Clio Cup France and Clio Cup Eastern Europe .
Photo Clément Luck / DPPI