Rouen-les-AFX: 32ème Rallye national de Saintonge, 2021.

The winner of the rally was this Citroën C4 WRC of Jean-Marie Cuoq and Eric Vallon. Jean-Marie was Champion de France des Rallyes Asphalte in 2015 and has many times won the championship on the dirt. It was his first time entering this particular rally. I believe he drives a car that used to be rallied by Sébastien Loeb.

Following the VHC cars and a 90 minute wait whilst some mess on the route was sorted, came the main event of the day for modern rally cars. Some of these were very new whilst others were cars that have been rallied for a number of decades. The 32nd National Rally of Saintonge counts for a number of championships including "la coupe de France des rallyes 2021". Certainly the field had some well known names in French rallying taking part. An asphalt (tarmac) rally it consisted of two special stages, which were each taken a number of times. I was at the Bussac special stage during ES3 which ran through the Cognac and Pineau de Charente vineyards.

Thirty of the 101 cars that started are shown below including the complete top ten and many of the other faster cars and group and class winners. I particularly liked seeing the pair of Renault Alpine A110s and the winning car of previous French rally champion Jean-Marie Cuoq. As you can see below, quite a variety of different cars.

Second overall and winner of its Group was this Volkswagen Polo driven by Denis Millet and Manon Verger. He ended up less than 12 seconds behind the winner and won the third stage where he is pictured here.

This Citroën C3 came third overall driven by Mathias De Souza and Marie Corbineau. They were the previous winners of the rally when it was last held in 2019 and are local favourites as Mathias was born locally in the Charente Maritime.

Another Citroën C3 driven by Bruno Longépé and Sandra Raffin came fourth. Bruno is now fifty years old but has many victories since he started rallying in 1993 and won this rally back in 2016.

This beautiful Renault Alpine A110 came fifth and won its Group and Class driven by Jérôme and Anne Galpin. Lovely to see these GT cars rallying again just like their predecessor 50 years ago.

Kicking-up dust in sixth place is the Skoda Fabia of Paul Paille and Christophe Gaudin.

Seventh overall and winner of their class were Aurélien Lafont and Mathieu Favreau in this Renault Clio.

Also in a class winning Renault Clio, in eighth place were Antoine Hommeau and Jean-Baptiste Riffaud.

In ninth was another Renault Clio crewed by Thierry Landais and Arnault Cairault.

Rounding out the top ten was Citroën Saxo driven by Lionel Mesnager and Amélie Lopes. They won their class.

This Renault Clio S1600 won its class driven by Johann Hayet and Kévin Boisson.

Another class winner was this Peugeot 208 crewed by Kévin Millet and Alexia Desnoyer.

Winner of its group and class was this Renault Clio of Anthony Ulbert and Loïc Brunaud.

Another class winner was this Citroën Saxo VTS driven by Romain Galin and Jonathan Baron.

Loïc Boudaud and Pauline Boyer won their class in this Renault Clio.

This Peugeot 106 S16 driven by Florian Guillon and Clément Chaille won its class.

Another class winner was this Subaru Impreza of Gary Guerin and Jordan Lecomte. Amazing to think that the Impreza has been rallying since 1993, so nearly three decades!

All of the above finished in the top 30.

Another Subaru Impreza checking in at the end of the morning section.

A Fiat Punto S16 about to check in.

A fast Ford Fiesta RS WRC that didn't finish.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost. However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.