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PIERRE ROCHÉ WINS ON HIS DEBUT AT ANTIBES, MOURGUES NEW LEADER

• The Rallye Antibes Côte d'Azur hosted a record service park for round two of the 2023 Alpine Elf Rally Trophy season. • Pierre Roché was unstoppable in his trophy debut, claiming his maiden win ahead of Gentlemen Jean-François Mourgues - new leader of the general classification - and Vincent Leduc. • The Alpine A110 Rally continues its winning streak in the French 2WD Rally Championship with impressive performances from Raphaël Astier and Cédric Robert.

Second in the Rallye Rhône-Charbonnières,Ludovic Godard was the first to show his mettle on the wet roads with changinggrip. Winner of the first two stages on Friday, he opened up a lead of 11.6s,but Pierre Roché had other ideas. Third in SS1, then second in SS2, the latter scoredhis first stage win on the longest timed sector to take the lead at midday.

PierreRoché put the hammer down on the second Levens - Duranus -Saint-Jean-la-Rivière run, where Grégory Fontalba, Loïc Panagiotis and PhilippeBaffoun struggled. The leader kept his foot on the gas on Puget-Théniers toincrease his advantage to 40.1s over Jean-François Mourgues, who went crescendoto move ahead of Vincent Leduc whilst Ludovic Godard dropped down the order.


In drying conditions making it tricky to choosebetween the different Michelin tyre compounds, Pierre Roché extended his leadon Saturday with the best time in Gourdon - Cipières and the iconic Col deBleine stage. The Team FJ driver tackled the final loop with a 1:02.7s lead andused all his experience to manage the rally, claim a sixth stage win and clinchvictory ahead of the Gentlemen Jean-François Mourgues, Vincent Leduc and ÉricRoyère.

Romain Haut-Labourdette was in a scrap with EricRoyère but eventually retired after a mistake in the final sector. JérémyCrétien inherited fifth place to take his second victory among the Challengers.In sixth place, David Ferraro preceded Éric Giannini and the drivers startingagain after retiring on Friday: Philippe Baffoun, Grégory Fontalba and LoïcPanagiotis.

In the general classification, the gaps arenarrowing. With Charbonnières winner Fabrice Bect skipping Antibes,Jean-François Mourgues take the lead with his second podium result, ahead ofthe former leader and Pierre Roché. Vincent Leduc trails the leader by sevenpoints while Jérémy Crétien completes a top five covered by only nine units.

The Alpine A110 Rally cars also demonstrated againall their agility on the Antibes roads, most notably with a one-two finish onSS4 and an impressive performance from Raphaël Astier. Before taking on PikesPeak with Alpine, the Frenchman won the SS6 and set the second fastest time onthe Col de Bleine to finish fifth overall and win the 2WD category.

The Alpine Elf Rally Trophy competitors will nowshift their focus on the next round, the Rallye Aveyron Rouergue Occitanie (6-8July), which will mark the end of the first half of the season.


Pierre Roché (1st): "We had a terrific weekend. It's always nice to be on top right whenyou discover a new competition, especially as Antibes is far from my favouriterally because of the road profile. It was the first time I drove the Alpine inthe rain. It was a bit tricky at first, but we did well and we will be evenbetter in Rouergue and Mont-Blanc, two events I like."


Jean-FrançoisMourgues (2nd, 1st Gentleman): "I'd say it wasan almost perfect weekend as we finished second and learnt a lot from tryingdifferent Michelin compounds. It will be useful in the future as I think westill have a lot of room for improvement. I hope we will be faster in Rouergue,where we will be heading on top of the general classification. It's the icingon the cake, and I'm extremely happy for all the people who support me!"


Jérémy Crétien (5th,1st Challenger): "This weekend startedwell as we were battling with the leaders on Friday morning, but we made toobold a choice in the afternoon. We prayed that it wouldn't rain, but it unfortunatelydid. Ludovic Godard and I dropped down the leaderboard. It was hard to get backinto the fight the next day. We drove to gain experience and finished to takeour second Challengers victory even though we would have preferred to be muchhigher in the general classification!"


Classification

1. Pierre Roché – MartineRoché 2h26:48.1s

2. Jean-FrançoisMourgues – Michel Roissard +1:13.2s

3. Vincent Leduc – Caroline Puel +2:08.6s

4. Éric Royère – Gilbert Dini +2:46.5s

5. Jérémy Crétien – Xavier Rouchouze +4:10.2s

6. David Ferraro – Michel Corneglio +4:17.3s

7. Éric Giannini – Alexandre Denuzière +7:07.9s

8. Philippe Baffoun – Charline Quartini +29:59.0s

9. Grégory Fontalba – Stéphan Hermet +32:27.0s

10. Loïc Panagiotis– Caroline Goddi +32:45.1s

Ret. RomainHaut-Labourdette – Fabien Tardito

Ret. Ludovic Godard– Samuel Passetemps

Ret. BertrandFassio – Jean-François de Montredon


General classification

1. Jean-FrançoisMourgues 27 points

2. Fabrice Bect& Pierre Roché 20 points

4. Vincent Leduc 20points

5. Jérémy Crétien18 points

6. Ludovic Godard15 points

7. Éric Royère 13points

8. Bertrand Fassio &David Ferraro 6 points

10. Éric Giannini 6points

11. RomainHaut-Labourdette 4 points

12. PhilippeBaffoun 3 points

13. GrégoryFontalba 2 points

14. Élodie Gines& Loïc Panagiotis 1 point


ABOUT ALPINE

Founded in 1955 by Jean Rédélé, the brand has set itself apart with itsFrench-style sports cars. In 2018, the brand presented the new A110, a sportscar faithful to Alpine's timeless principles of compactness, lightness, agilityand driving pleasure. The Alpine Business Unit was created in 2021 and thusbecame the brand dedicated to innovative, authentic, exclusive sportscars ofthe Renault Group, benefiting from the heritage and craftsmanship of itshistoric plant in Dieppe and the Alpine Racing and Alpine Cars teamsengineering mastery.

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