Four in a row and a title on home soil for Pierre Roché at the Alpine Elf Rally Trophy

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• Pierre Roché won for the fourth consecutive time, edging out rival #ludovicgodard by 0.7s on Rallye Cœur de France.
• Victorious on his and Team FJ's home soil, the 48-year-old driver secured the title ahead of the season finale in the Var region to join Julien Saunier and Grégory Fontalba as #alpineelfrallytrophy title-winners.
• BWT Alpine F1 Team driver Esteban Ocon got behind the wheel of the Alpine A110 Rally to open the stages in front of a large crowd in the Loir-et-Cher.
• Despite suffering a puncture in the final kilometres of the rally, Raphaël Astier gave the A-arrow brand another success in the French Two-Wheel Drive Rally Championship.

Eight crews were in Vendôme for the Rallye Cœur de France, the penultimate round of the 2023 #alpineelfrallytrophy season. Among the contenders, #pierreroche was the favourite for the #event in his region and that of his team, Team FJ. Headed by Jérôme Galpin, the team also gave the zero car for Esteban Ocon, who was welcomed by an enthusiastic crowd in the service park and along the roads on Saturday.

The #competition, however, was determined to delay Pierre Roche's title, and #ludovicgodard proved this by immediately taking a 12.5s lead. The Team Minerva driver jumped into the lead, as he had done in the previous three rounds, but he conceded 1.5s on the next timed sector before attacking again in the final morning stage to finish the first loop with a 40.0s lead.

Cut to thick after his mistake in the opening stage, #pierreroche returned to form in the afternoon with four consecutive stage wins to close the gap to 23.0s . #ludovicgodard took advantage of a stall by the local driver in the short super-special through the streets of Vendôme to extend his lead to 26.1s, but following the allocation of the definitive notional times for SS3, his advantage dropped to 14.3s.

On Sunday morning, #pierreroche took his first step towards the title with the retirement of his closest rival in the general classification, Jean-François Mourgues. Now sure that victory would be his crowning glory, the Team FJ leader continued his offensive in the two longest stages of the rally. Back to within 7.9s at midday, #pierreroche continued to close to within 2.9s before the final special stage on the Savigny-sur-Braye roads.

In this 25km section, #pierreroche edged out his rival by 3.6s to claim victory by just 0.7s after 192.67 km of frantic action. The podium was completed by Vincent Leduc, who had long battled with Frédéric Perriat until the latter went off in the SS11. Vincent Leduc also comfortably won the Gentleman category ahead of Éric Giannini, while Armand Fumal took fifth place from Jean-Luc Roché by 3.3s in the final stage.

Scoring his fourth consecutive triumph in the #alpineelfrallytrophy, #pierreroche claimed the title ahead of the Rallye du Var (24-26 November). There will be plenty to race for in the season finale though, as the new champion could also win the Challenger title whilst the Gentlemen category promises to be wide open, with Jean-François Mourgues and Vincent Leduc now tied for the points lead. The results, however, have been suspended pending further post-rally technical verifications.

Further information in the press release to download