#RA Rally Regione Piemonte

Stéphane Lefebvre leads 2023 TER – Tour European Rally Round 4 in Alba

14.04.2023

French Ace precedes Andrea Crugnola and Fabio Andolfi

 

The opening leg of #RA Rally Regione Piemonte, in a warm and sunny afternoon, ran under the sign of Stéphane Lefebvre. The 2014 JWRC and WRC3 Champion, who took silver in the TER Standings at last year’s event, has made the most of the Citroën C3 Rally2 he shares with Andy Malfoy. In a sister car, 2023 Rally Terra Valle del Tevere winner Andrea Crugnola and Pietro Elia Ometto are second, while TER Series returnee Fabio Andolfi is third with Nicolò Gonella on a Škoda Fabia Rally2.

 

Just outside the provisional podium, TER Series Ambassador and 2023 TER W Series leader, kiwi driver Hayden Paddon is getting to grips with the Hyundai i20N Rally2 he samples for the first time on tarmac, codriven by Jared Hudson.

 

2014 Italian Junior Champion Giacomo Scattolon is fifth for his maiden event in the newest concept of rally series, with WRC event winner Sauro Farnocchia next to him on a Volkswagen Polo.

 

The French crew of Mathieu Arzeno and Romain Roche take their Škoda Fabia up to sixth, despite catching another crew on stage. In a close fight, Alberto Dall’Era-Luca Betrame’s Polo is only 0.4 seconds ahead of the Citroën C3 Rally2 of 2020 WRC2 World Champion Mads Østberg and Patrik Barth, while in a sister car Rachele Somaschini and Arianna Faustini close the top ten.

 

Locals Massimo Marasso and Luca Pieri lost a few seconds when their engine stalled shortly after the start of the opening test; They lead a trio of Škoda Fabias Rally2, ahead of 2019 TER – Tour European Rally runners-up Stefan Gottig and Natalie Solbach-Schmidt and Swiss R5 novice Yoan Loeffler codriven by Hervé Faucher.

 

In TER Junior, Roberto Daprà and Luca Guglielmetti’s Peugeot 208 Rally 4 leads, in the same way as the sister car of Fabio Farina with Gabriele Zanni tops the TER 2WD standings.

 

Photo: AciSport