The rally got off to flying start for the three men who would occupy the leading positions from start to finish: Marché led Venturini by 2/10ths of a second and was ahead of Augoyard by 4/10ths! Augoyard grabbed the lead in the next special stage. 

Venturini took the best time in the last special stage of the first 1st leg and headed back to Charbonnières-les-Bains in front of Marché and Augoyard. The gaps separating the leaders remained small, with less than 3 seconds covering the first three drivers! 

Behind the leaders, a group made up of Boris Carminati, the Belgian driver Davy Vanneste, Jean-Sébastien Vigion, Mathieu Biasion, Laurent Lacomy and Thomas Barral was getting ready to put up a fight. Unfortunately, at this point, Blanc (electrical problem) and Jouines (crashed out) had already been forced to retire. 

Despite the rain, the battle was even more fierce on Saturday morning, as Pierre Marché regained the lead in the second special stage of day 2. Many drivers were caught out by the treacherous conditions: Vanneste, Carminati, Couval, Prévalet and Paganon fell fowl of the conditions, all of them going off the road on SS5! 

The overall standings were shaken up with Jonathan Dessens, Giacomo Coustellier, Yves Gire and Manu Gascou all moving up the field. At the Chamelet service park, Coustellier tried to relax as much as possible, performing a few tricks on his mountain bike – a speciality that has already earned him a World title in the discipline. 

Thomas Guyot was very pleased to record his first scratch time in the Clio Cup Rally (SS6), but was forced to abandon after going off the road on the next special stage… 

Venturini put in three attacks in quick succession on SS7 to SS9: his three quickest times enabled him to take the lead back from Pierre Marché. Still in touch, Arnaud Augoyard was nonetheless around fifteen seconds behind the leader by this point. 

German driver Sven Schädler, who had lost more than 5 minutes with a puncture on SS1, had to abandon (crashed out) on SS9, after having set some good times. Laurent Lacomy was also added to the long list of drivers to have crashed out of the rally. 

SS11 was cancelled and so everything would be decided in the final special stage of the rally. But Venturini confirmed his victory with a fifth scratch time: “I enjoyed the rally, it was a great battle throughout the weekend. It augurs well for the rest of the season – there are going to be some very closely fought races! The win puts me in an ideal position for the races to come.” 

Pierre Marché, who has learned his lesson from 2004, was very pleased to have finished second: “There certainly is some serious competition out there this year! But I think I have matured. I didn’t go all out to catch Henri-Marc. I was thinking about getting some decent points on the board. This year, I’m not going to make the same mistakes as last year…” 

In his first Clio Cup Rally race, Arnaud Augoyard was also very happy to finish in the first three: “I knew from the outset that I would do well, but it’s true that I’m a little surprised to see that I am already able to compete for the win. I’ve still got a lot to learn on slippery surfaces. On the last stage, I didn’t want to take any risks.” 

• Stage wins: Venturini 5, Augoyard 3, Marché 2, Guyot 1.
• Leader (stage by stage): SS1 Marché, SS2 et 3 Augoyard, SS4 Venturini, SS5 to SS8 Marché, SS9 to SS12 (finish) Venturini.