Pierre Roché has sealed his fourth win in a row and the title at the Rallye Cœur de France in the Alpine Elf Rally Trophy

Eight crews were in Vendôme for the Rallye Cœur de France, the penultimate round of the 2023 Alpine Elf Rally Trophy season.

Among the contenders, Pierre Roché was the favourite for the event in his home region and that of his team, Team FJ.

Champion Pierre Roché said: “This fourth win was the hardest to achieve this season because Ludovic gave me a lot of trouble, and that’s what I love about this sport.

“I made a mistake on SS1, but it was one incident after another with a time penalty that needed rectifying, then a deer costing me a few seconds on Saturday afternoon, a stall in the super-stage and another stage neutralised on Sunday morning.

“It didn’t look good for us, and I must admit that it would have bothered me not to win on home soil.

We really pulled out all the stops to get this win by seven-tenths of a second and it comes with a nice bonus, the title.

“And that won’t stop me from targeting victory again in the Var.”

Headed by Jérôme Galpin, the team also gave the zero car for Esteban Ocon, who was welcomed by an enthusiastic crowd in the service park and along the roads on Saturday.

The competition, however, was determined to delay Pierre Roche’s title, and Ludovic Godard proved this by immediately taking a 12.5second lead.

The Team Minerva driver jumped into the lead, as he had done in the previous three rounds, but he conceded 1.5s on the next timed sector before attacking again in the final morning stage to finish the first loop with a 40.0s lead.

After a mistake in the opening stage, Pierre Roché returned to form in the afternoon with four consecutive stage wins to close the gap to 23.0s.

Ludovic Godard took advantage of a stall by the local driver in the short super-special through the streets of Vendôme to extend his lead to 26.1s, but following the allocation of the definitive notional times for SS3, his advantage dropped to 14.3s.

On Sunday morning, Pierre Roché took his first step towards the title with the retirement of his closest rival in the general classification, Jean-François Mourgues.

Now that victory was with his grasp the Team FJ leader continued his offensive in the two longest stages of the rally and was back to within 7.9s at midday.

Pierre Roché continued to close and was within 2.9s before the final special stage on the Savigny-sur-Braye roads.

In this 25km section, Pierre Roché edged out his rival by 3.6s to claim victory by just 0.7s after 192.67 km of frantic action.

The podium was completed by Vincent Leduc, who had long battled with Frédéric Perriat until the latter went off in the SS11.

Vincent Leduc also comfortably won in the Gentleman category ahead of Éric Giannini, while Armand Fumal took fifth place from Jean-Luc Roché by 3.3s in the final stage.

Scoring his fourth consecutive triumph in the Alpine Elf Rally Trophy, Pierre Roché claimed the title ahead of the Rallye du Var (24-26 November).

There will be plenty to race for in the season finale though, as the new champion could also win the Challenger title whilst the Gentlemen category promises to be wide open, with Jean-François Mourgues and Vincent Leduc now tied for the points lead.

The results, however, have been suspended pending further post-rally technical verifications.

Meanwhile, the Alpine A110 Rally cars monopolised the top five places in the French Two-Wheel Drive Rally Championship.

Raphaël Astier, who had long been fifth overall overcame a puncture on the final stage to make it five along with side the Alpines driven by Pierre Roché, Ludovic Godard, Cédric Robert and Vincent Leduc.