Yoann Bonato wins by just 4 tenths on CFR’s Rallye Rhône-Charbonnières

With spring-like weather and a large crowd lining the roadsides, the 77th edition of the Rallye Rhône-Charbonnières was a resounding success this weekend. For this second round of the 2025 French Rally Championship (CFR), the suspense lasted until the final kilometers, and only 4 tenths allowed Yoann Bonato and Benjamin Boulloud to clinch victory! The five-time French Champions had to face the pressure of the competition, and in particular that of Eric Camilli and Thibault De La Haye, who were getting faster and faster as the stages progressed.

The Trajectus Motorsport team duo took the lead in the standings from the first stage and remained there until the final podium in Charbonnières, but the gap to their pursuers gradually narrowed, particularly during SS2: in fact, Eric Camilli and Thibault De La Haye set five of the six fastest times of the day! Very encouraging performances for the rest of the season for the 2C Competition crew, which bodes well for a victory in Antibes in three weeks, which would be the second consecutive victory on home soil for the regional rider of the stage!

Behind them, Pablo Sarrazin climbed onto his first podium in ‘CFR Asphalte’, accompanied by the experienced Yannick Roché. This weekend, he became the youngest rider to set a scratch time in the Championship, at just 19 years, 5 months, and 30 days!

Also worth noting this weekend were the excellent performances of their Sarrazin Motorsport Iron Lynx teammates, Réhane Gany and Franck le Floch, who set the best times on SS3 and SS4, but unfortunately suffered a minor accident on SS9 while they were in second position.

Yoann Bonato commented: “A big thank you to everyone, especially the team because we worked a lot this weekend to try to optimize. The ‘Charbo’ is really a rally that requires a good car, and that allowed us to keep up with our competitors. Eric and Thibault were really, really fast, they drove a great race, and that forced us to drive very hard. It was great, it’s honestly a great victory when it’s as close as this weekend, when it’s decided by tenths of a second. It’s happened to us before, and to do it here at Charbonnières in front of everyone who’s there and cheering us on is fantastic.”

Eric Camilli shared: “I think we did a great job. It wasn’t easy, because we lost precious seconds yesterday, especially in the afternoon when we ‘switched off’ a bit during two special stages even though we had a good start in the first loop. But this morning, when we were 11 seconds behind, we didn’t expect to be able to come back and finally, from stage to stage, we told ourselves that it was becoming possible, until this afternoon in the longest special where we tried to set a very strong pace and it made for a great finale. But we also knew that Yoann and Benjamin would drive very hard. We tried everything, but we were just 4 tenths short.”

Pablo Sarrazin said: “A big thank you to the whole team who really did an extraordinary job, and Yannick too. It was definitely a very good weekend for us. We didn’t think we’d be so far ahead, and we can really be satisfied with the work we did. The work is paying off, and we’re very, very happy.”

Overall Rallye Rhône-Charbonnières Results

01: Y. Bonato/B. Boulloud (Citroën C3 Rally2) – 1h 47m 43.7s
02: E. Camilli/T. De La Haye (Hyundai i20 N Rally2) + 0.4s
03: P. Sarrazin/Y. Roche (Citroën C3 Rally2) + 34.6s
04: H. Margaillan/M. Coppa (Hyundai i20 N Rally2) + 47.0s
05: A. Fotia/M. Di Lullo (Citroën C3 Rally2) + 1m 03.7s
06: S. Juif/V. Carmille (Citroën C3 Rally2) + 1m 39.2s
07: T. Capelli/M. Capelli (Hyundai i20 N Rally2) + 3m 00.1s
08: L. Godard/M. Bole-Richard (Alpine A110 Rallye GT+) + 3m 04.6s
09: Q. Gilbert/C. Guieu (Alpine A110 Rallye GT+) + 3m 09.5s
10: L. Darmezin/V. Auge (Citroën C3 Rally2) + 3m 28.0s

See the event’s full results here.