Etienne Bouhot wins the Coupe de France final

The Skoda Fabia R5 n°6Etienne Bouhot, associated with Christopher Le Morillon, showed the most verve yesterday to win the 2018 edition of the French Rally Cup final.

If Eric Mauffrey (Skoda Fabia R5) had taken the lead during the first short stage, the latter left the road definitively on SS3, the first special of the day on Saturday, and left Mathias Vaison (Skoda Fabia R5) take control of the event.

Vaison could not go further than SS8 and then ceded the leadership to the Citroën C3 of Guillaume Sirot who remained in the lead until the start of the final special stage of the event.

With a 4″ lead over Etienne Bouhot, Sirot was unable to contain the attacks of the Skoda Fabia driver, who finally won with a 2″4 lead, Sirot having gone to hug an embankment, hampered by the sun. Jean-Mathieu Leandri (Skoda Fabia R5) completes the podium for this 2018 edition.

“We did our best in the last special,” emphasizes Bouhot. We left with cold tires. We will have had a good final but I still regret Mathias' exit.

This was our year's goal and I spent a lot of time and money on it. I put my private life on hold and my wife let me; so it’s a great reward. We weren't ranked among the favorites and I'm happy to have beaten the odds. Thanks to my team, Team FJ as well as the spectators. »

Final ranking of the Coupe de France 2018

1. Étienne Bouhot / Christopher Le Morillon (Skoda Fabia R5) in 1h05m42s6

2. Guillaume Sirot / Émeline Breuil (Citroën C3 R5) at 2s4

3. Jean-Mathieu Leandri / Anthony Gorguilo (Skoda Fabia R5) at 48s5

4. Antonin Mougin / Florent Diottin (Citroën C3 R5) at 1m02s3

5. Dominique Rebout / Isabelle Galmiche (Skoda Fabia R5) at 1m22s1

6. Rémy Risaletto / Florian Bonhomme (Skoda Fabia S2000) at 1m40s1

7. Damien Oberti / Thomas Escartefigue (Skoda Fabia R5) at 1m52s4

8. Laurent Lecki / Jérémy Lamur (Skoda Fabia R5) at 1m53s2

9. Samuel Bellon / Christophe Tonru (Skoda Fabia R5) at 2m22s7

10. Eddie Lemaitre / Thomas Chauffray (Skoda Fabia R5) at 2m58s3