Rallye Lozère – Rousset escapes the massacre!

The driver of the Citroën C4 WRC rentre au parc avec une confortable avance sur la Porsche de Dumas et la Skoda de Jérémie Turco.

For his first participation in the Rally from Lozère, Mickaël Reydellet created a sensation by signing the scratch in the prologue classification special followed like his shadow by Eric Rousset and Romain Dumas!

The rally continued with 2 loops of 2 special stages, the longest and most difficult of the rally, notably the famous Pompidou special. Eric Rousset set the record straight in Pendis-Le Raiol to take the lead by signing the scratch 6”3 ahead of Mickaël Reydellet and 12”2 ahead of outgoing winner Nicolas Hernandez. The competitors then set off into the Pompidou, a perfect combination of the difficulty of the Cévennes roads, narrow between rocks and parapets and a superb view of Mount Aigoual, still slightly snow-covered.

Cascading abandonments

Reydellet set off first but after a few kilometers, his Polo was moving slowly. It's abandonment due to mechanical breakdown! Gilles Roca (winner of the 2015 edition) and Lionel Nicolas (then thirteenth) in turn gave up a few hectometers from the finish… Immediately followed in the service by the 2019 winner Nicolas Hernandez! The second loop started without them and Romain Dumas made the talk by signing the scratch. If one man profited more than any other from these facts of racing. It was Eric Rousse who then found himself leader with a good lead. Under bright sunshine, the horizon was clear for the Marvejols pilot!

Jérémie Serieys fantastic fifth scratch in his Clio R3 © Anthony Segaud

Eddie Lemaître also benefited, moving from 8th to 3rd place. But the second passage through the Pompidou which ends the day was fatal for him! For his part, Eric Rousset continued to knock out the competition by taking the scratch with a 28” lead over Dumas. The Citroën C4 WRC driver returned to the park with a comfortable lead over the Porsche of Dumas and the Skoda of Jérémie Turco. Enough to satisfy Eric Rousset: “A good first step, we were careful on the prologue. These stages are typical of the country and very tough. We managed special stage 4 with gravel... Unfortunately there was a massacre, I'm not happy about it, it's supposed to be a celebration for everyone. I'm enjoying this C4 which I'm having fun with! ". The big performance of the day is undoubtedly the fifth place of Jérémie Serieys on his Clio R3 “We weren't hoping for so much with such a field at the start, this 5th place is magnificent even if we took advantage of the retirements and the puncture of Yannick Vivens »

Jeremie Turco dominates the 4-wheel drive ranking of the Michelin Rallye Tour, followed by Nicolas Liron who continues to delight the public with the vocalizations of his Peugeot 207 S2000. 10th in the general classification, Patrick Benne dominates the 2-wheel drive.

Michelin Rallye Tour news on the CEERTA website

Ranking Rallye de Lozère – Stage 1

1. Rousset-Sauce (Citroën C4 WRC) 53'25''1 (1st Gr.FRC1), 2. Dumas-Giraudet (Porsche 997 GT3 RS 4.0) at 1'49''6 (1st Gr.FRGT), 3. Turco-Borne (Skoda Fabia) at 2'21''5 (1st Gr.FRC2), 4. Escudero-Belhacene (Skoda Fabia) at 2'51''7, 5. Serieys-Crespin (Clio R3) at 3'10''0 (1st Gr.FRC4), 6. Liron-Maurin (207 S2000) at 3'37''0, 7. Fassio-Eustaquio (Alpine A110 R-GT) at 4'03''8. Constanty-Bonicel (Citroën C8) at 3'4''13