Ypres Rally Belgium - The Alpine A110 Rally remains undefeated in FIA RGT Cup 16.08.2021: Round three of the FIA RGT Cup was won by the Alpine A110 Rally of Pierre Ragues and Julien Pesenti. With his second victory of the season at the Renties Ypres Rally Belgium, the Frenchman also takes his third success in a category where the Alpine brand

Round three of the FIA RGT Cup was won by the Alpine A110 Rally of Pierre Ragues and Julien Pesenti. With his second victory of the season at the Renties Ypres Rally Belgium, the Frenchman also takes his third success in a category where the Alpine brand now enjoyed four triumphs in as many starts.


 
The Renties Ypres Rally Belgium, which debuted in the FIA World Rally Championship, was the third stop on the calendar for the FIA RGT Cup competitors. Alpine once again topped the entry list with four Belgian and three French crews sporting its colours.


On the narrow roads of West Flanders, Gino Bux was the fastest in the first four timed sectors. The Belgian repeated his performance in the second loop to relegate his closest rival, Pierre Ragues, to 1:16.2s, while a fascinating battle for third place was taking place between the Alpine A110 Rallys of Philippe Baffoun, Marc Duez and Stefaan Prinzie.


Following the neutralisation of the opening stage on Saturday, Gino Bux took four more stage wins and was regularly among the best four-wheel drive Rally2 cars in the WRC2 and WRC3. Consistently second to this point, Pierre Ragues put an end to the leader's dominance by winning SS14 and SS16 and even took the lead when his rival received a 30-minute penalty for being underweight.


Inheriting a more than eight-minute lead from Marc Duez, Pierre Ragues controlled the proceedings in the deciding leg around the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps while setting four-second best times behind Gino Bux.



Following his recent win in Rome, the Frenchman sealed his second success of the season with a nearly 15-minute margin of victory over Stefaan Prinzie, who in turn got the better of Marc Duez in the SS18. In addition to his triumph, Pierre Ragues was 18th in the general classification and finished almost five minutes ahead of the top Porsche 997 GT3 Cup in the NRGT category.


With his second consecutive victory, Pierre Ragues takes the lead of the FIA RGT Cup from Manu Guigou, who had an unfortunate incident during the shakedown on Thursday. Philippe Baffoun, who finished fourth in Belgium, remains third in the general classification where the Alpine A110 Rally cars still monopoly the top positions.
The next round of the FIA RGT Cup will take place in Slovenia on the Rally Nova Gorica from 9-11 September.


Pierre Ragues


“My aim for this weekend was on scoring as many points as possible and continuing to get a good feeling from the Alpine A110 Rally. Julien and I had a good run in Rome, so we hoped to continue that but also knowing we would be up against some Ypres specialists. For our first time in the event, I am satisfied with our performance. We were always inside the top-two, and also took three fastest times, which put us in good contention.


We knew it would be important to score good points so I am happy we could take the RGT win and move into the title lead. Some of the stages were low on grip so we could make good use of the Michelin tyres which performed really well. There’s no rest from this event, as I now turn my focus back to endurance racing for next week’s 24 Hours of Le Mans; I have the honour of being one of the commentators for L’Equipe TV. After that, we look ahead to the next round of RGT Cup in Slovenia next month.”
 



CLASSIFICATIONS


Renties Ypres Rally Belgium 2021 – FIA RGT classification


1.           Pierre Ragues-Julien Pesenti (Alpine A110 Rally) 2h51:17.7s
2.           Stefaan Prinzie-Sharon Vermeulen (Alpine A110 Rally) +14:10.8s
3.           Marc Duez-Jacques Castelein (Alpine A110 Rally) +15:17.3s
4.           Philippe Baffoun-Charlyne Quartini (Alpine A110 Rally) +16:53.7s
5.           Chris Vandamme-Kurt Declerck (Alpine A110 Rally) +26:02.8s
6.           Gino Bux-André Leyh (Alpine A110 Rally) +27:26.9s
DNS.     Manu Guigou-Arnaud Dunand (Alpine A110 Rally)
 


2021 FIA RGT Cup
1.           Pierre Ragues 62 points
2.           Manu Guigou 43 points
3.           Philippe Baffoun 34 points
4.           Raphaël Astier & Stefaan Prinzie 18 points
6.           Cédric Robert, Dariusz Polońsk & Marc Duez 15 points…
 



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