WRC3: Quentin Gilbert finishes the job in France

After completing 312 kilometres of timed stages, Quentin Gilbert and his co-driver Renaud Jamoul won the fifth round of the Citroën Top Driver series at the Rallye de France.

The event’s local driver was the weekend’s top performer, finishing 53.9 seconds ahead of Sébastien Chardonnet/Thibault de la Haye (picture) in their DS3 R3. Chardonnet’s second position means he still leads the Citroën championship and that he becomes the two-wheel drive world champion by securing the WRC3 category title. Keith Cronin and Marshall Clarke took the third and final podium spot.

When the crews began the final day of the French round, they weren’t expecting conditions to be even more difficult than yesterday. The leg consisted of six short stages, including two runs on the Haguenau super special stage, with no return to the service park.

The tone for the day was set on the 14.60 kilometre-long “Vignoble de Cleebourg” test. Quentin Gilbert set the fastest time on the trickiest stage of the rally, extending his lead slightly over Sébastien Chardonnet. The next two stages were won by Chardonnet, but Gilbert wasn’t far behind.

It was very much the same story on the second loop, meaning Quentin Gilbert wrapped up his first win in the Citroën Top Driver series. The talented young Frenchman was visibly delighted after enduring a testing first half to the season.

“It’s a huge relief and a great bonus to contest a rally without any problems and end up winning it. Everything went perfectly with Renaud and we’ll take now renewed confidence into the final round. In any case, we’ll do all we can to give ourselves a good chance of winning.”

Runner-up at this, the fifth round of the Citroën Top Driver, Sébastien Chardonnet still leads the championship standings ahead of the season’s final event, but his strong result also meant he ended the weekend with another title under his belt. The talented young driver placed his DS3 R3 on the top step of the podium in the WRC3 category.

“I’m obviously delighted to be world champion in the two-wheel drive category! We have achieved this result thanks to the work put in by our entire team and by my co-driver, but it is also down to the DS3 R3 which has delivered the performance and reliability required to win this title.”

Third-placed Keith Cronin admitted he wasn’t too disappointed with his result. By taking the points for the final podium spot, the Irish driver is now seven points behind the leader and is now the only one still with a mathematical chance of challenging Chardonnet for the title. Although this weekend was the first time he had competed in the French event, he fully intends to win his home round at Wales Rally GB.

“I didn’t want to take any risks given the particularly tough conditions. This result means I have a shot at the title in Wales and I don’t intend to let anyone beat me at my home rally.”

After suffering during the first two days, Christian Riedemann improved his pace and was much closer to the leaders, even taking a stage win. He finished just outside the top three.

“The stages in today’s leg were different and were much more like the kind of roads you find in Germany. So I felt more comfortable and my times were more convincing as a result. This weekend has been difficult but I have learned a lot about a rally that I was competing in for the first time and which was particularly complicated.”

The teams’ championship still remains up for grabs, so Top Teams and Charles Hurst Citroën Belfast will do battle again in the final round to see which outfit takes the title.