Round ten of the 2023 Clio Cup Series got underway at Le Castellet on Friday afternoon. Overall leader David Pouget immediately topped the timesheets before being relayed by Luca Franca in the night session. On Saturday, the Frenchman regained the advantage in qualifying to claim pole position ahead of Jerzy Spinkiewicz and Nicolas Milan.
The competitors gathered a few hours later for their first night race of the year. David Pouget got off to a flying start ahead of Jerzy Spinkiewicz and Nicolas Milan. Meanwhile, Adrian Schimpf and Luca Franca surprised Alexandre Albouy in an action-packed start of the race. The order quickly changed as Nicolas Milan took second place from Jerzy Spinkiewicz on lap two. Luca Franca followed him one lap later before a wheel lock at the entry to the chicane forced him to deal with pressure from his pursuers, who were locked in an intense battle.
The safety car came on track after Raphaël Cuadrado (GM Sport) stopped. Although David Pouget controlled the restart, Nicolas Milan went on the offensive on the penultimate lap. The battle for third place heated up as Luca Franca went wide and dropped back to seventh place while Jerzy Spinkiewicz held off Adrian Schimpf to move up to third place.
The fallen leader, David Pouget, tried to regain the lead despite the resistance of Nicolas Milan, but the two men made contact in the final corner. Better positioned to take on the final straight, Jerzy Spinkiewicz took the lead and won ahead of Alexandre Albouy. David Pouget finished third but received a one-place penalty for his part in the collision with Nicolas Milan. Challengers Adrian Schimpf and Aurélien Renet rounded off a top six that was separated by less than a second at the finish. Seventh-placed Luca Franca was first in the Racers Cup, followed of Florian Coruble (GM Sport), Guillaume Maio (GM Sport) and Jérémy Bordagaray (Milan Compétition) into the top ten.
With his maiden success, Jerzy Spinkiewicz is back into the Clio Cup Series top ten while David Pouget will have his first opportunity to secure the super-winner’s title this Sunday.
CLIO CUP ITALIA
In addition to his maiden Clio Cup Series victory, Jerzy Spinkiewicz returned to his winning ways in Clio Cup Italia, finishing first ahead of Luca Franca. However, Luca Franca took another step towards the title by beating his closest rival in the general classification, Mattia Lancellotti (Faro Racing). Luca Franca also won ahead of Alex Lancellotti (Faro Racing) and Alessandro Alcidi (Tuder Motorsport) for the eighth time in Racers Cup to become the first driver mathematically assured of the title this season. His rival Mattia Lancellotti consoled himself with another win in the Challengers Cup to move to within a point of category leader Giacomo Trebbi (MC Motortecnica), who finished runner-up ahead of Leonardo Arduini (MC Motortecnica).
CLIO CUP FRANCE
Like Jerzy Spinkiewicz, Alexandre Albouy took full advantage of the contact between David Pouget and Nicolas Milan in the final corner to claim his first victory of 2023 ahead of his two countrymen. Among the latter, Nicolas Milan benefited from the penalty imposed on David Pouget to retake control of Clio Cup France with a four-point lead. Aurélien Renet scored his first win of the year in the Challengers Cup ahead of Florian Coruble and Florian Venturi (GM Sport) to keep his title hopes alive while Jérémy Bordagaray won the Racers Cup ahead of Fabien Julia (LR Performance) and Samuel Chaligne (T2CM) to take another step towards the title in this class.
CLIO CUP ESPAÑA
Adrian Schimpf led from start to finish to win ahead of Jérémy Bordagaray in Clio Cup España The two men took advantage of the situation to move back to within 11 points of leader Alejandro Schimpf (AST Competition), who was third on Saturday. The day’s winner also won the Challengers Cup to reduce his deficit to one point over his twin brother, while Lydia Sempere (AST Competition) completed the podium in this category. Lastly, Jérémy Bordagaray scored his fifth category win of the year ahead of Alejandro Romero (Team VRT) and Joaquin Rodrigo (Team VRT) to increase his lead in the Racers Cup.
