Castine Terre d'Occitanie Rally – Stage 1: Todeschini above the fray

To say the least, Florent Todeschini made a triumphant return to competition this Saturday for the first round of the 2026 French Gravel Rally Championship. A year and a half after their last CFRT appearance, Todeschini and his co-driver Florian Barral were the fastest in the first stage of the rally and the six special stages completed today. This evening, they return to Bretenoux as comfortable leaders of the overall standings with four fastest stage times and a 32,8-second advantage over their closest rivals in the CHL Sport Auto Citroën C3 Rally2 equipped with Pirelli tires. Behind them, the battle is fierce, this time between the 2C Compétition crews. At the end of the first leg, Americans Conner Martell and Alex Gelsomino move into second place in their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, ahead of their teammates Sarah Rumeau and Julie Amblard, who displayed a very strong pace throughout the day despite a puncture in the first special stage. Quentin Ribaud and Loan Biagetti, who had been in excellent form at the start of the rally, suffered handbrake problems and dropped down the order, falling from second to fourth overall in their Hyundai i20N Rally2.

Škoda cars are well represented in the Top 5 of the Castine Terre d'Occitanie.

The top five this evening is completed by Damien Mattei and Geoffrey Combe, who are also keeping pace despite driving an older generation Škoda than the two 2C Compétition crews. For Team AMD Motorsport, however, the day did not go as planned. This morning, on the very first stage, Emmanuel Gascou and Gilles de Turckheim suffered mechanical problems, while Matthieu and Mathilde Margaillan had a puncture in SS3. They are currently in 8th and 6th place respectively, but the pace shown by the reigning French Gravel Vice-Champions deserves praise, as they consistently competed at the same level as the Todeschini-Barral duo throughout the day. It should be noted that the team's third Škoda, driven by Cédric and Sabrina Rabasse, was forced to retire early due to a technical issue that arose at the start of the recce. Benjamin Clémençon and Jessica Fouret also suffered due to a puncture and finished this first stage outside the Top 10 for the Sarrazin World Rally Team.

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CFRT – Castine Terre d'Occitanie Rally
The Top 10 after the 1st stage