Opportunist in the nightfall on the Circuit Paul Ricard, Nicolas Milan (Milan Competition) took advantage of two clashes between David Pouget (GPA Racing) and Anthony Jurado (Milan Competition) to offer himself his third consecutive victory and his eighth success of the year against his opponents for the title in Clio Cup Europe. At the same time, Alexandre Albouy (GPA Racing) and Laurent Dziadus (Team Lucas) prolong the suspense by winning the Challengers Cup and Gentlemen Drivers Cup respectively.

Anthony Jurado succeeded in dominating the two practice sessions on Friday’s schedule. Still in contention for the European crown, the Montpellier driver continued his momentum on Saturday by taking pole position against David Pouget and Nicolas Milan. Challenger Alexandre Albouy and Marc Guillot (Milan Competition) completed the top five on the grid.

If the poleman maintained control with authority at the start, his pursuers quickly went on the offensive. From the second round, Marc Guillot surprised Alexandre Albouy for the gain of fourth place before the latter’s reply. A few turns further, Nicolas Milan opened the opening on David Pouget to steal second position from him.

Anthony Jurado took advantage of the battles between his opponents to widen the gap, but Nicolas Milan and David Pouget accelerated the pace to redo the connection from the fifth tour. Three laps later, Alexandre Albouy imitated David Pouget by relegating Nicolas Milan off the podium as the fight intensified as the five contenders passed through.

After a time of observation, David Pouget attacked the leader in the ninth lap, but his maneuver hit him Anthony Jurado. After new contact between the two protagonists at the next turn, Nicolas Milan made his way to grab the lead.

Once at the helm, Nicolas Milan used all his experience to sign his eighth success of the year against Anthony Jurado and David Pouget. The latter was however promoted to second row ahead of Anthony Jurado, penalized by one place after the checkered flag.

Marc Guillot also took advantage of the various incidents to definitively wrest fourth position from Alexandre Albouy, victorious in the Challengers Cup. After a superb pass from start to finish, Mathieu Lannepoudenx (Milan Competition) and David Pajot (Vic’Team) deprived Kévin Jimenez (GPA Racing) of the category podium in the last seconds of the race while that Jerzy Spinkiewicz (Uniq Racing) and Paul Cocaign (TB2S) completed the top ten. In the Gentlemen Drivers Cup, Laurent Dziadus controls the debates to win ahead of Fabien Julia (LR Performance) and Mathieu Rigoulet (Vic’Team).

In the general classification, Nicolas Milan and David Pouget are now tied on points at the top of the Clio Cup Europe with their twenty best results, but Nicolas Milan takes the advantage in the number of victories with eight wins against five. Marc Guillot remains third, still in contention for the title. Thanks to their victories of the day, Alexandre Albouy is now the only driver to be able to deprive Kévin Jimenez of the title in the Challengers Cup while Laurent Dziadus once again becomes the closest pursuer of Horn (GPA Racing) in the Gentlemen Drivers Cup.

Group B

A rare occurrence this season, the three podiums in the Clio Cup Europe were exactly the same in Group B with the victories of Nicolas Milan, Alexandre Albouy and Laurent Dziadus.

In front of David Pouget, Nicolas Milan accentuates his lead over his rival while Kévin Jimenez consolidates his third place while remaining leader among the Challengers ahead of Alexandre Albouy and Mathieu Lannepoudenx. Finally, Laurent Dziadus widened the gap on his closest pursuers among the Gentlemen Drivers, Horn and Jérémy Bordagaray (Team Borda Rally).