A round-up of the day’s events . It rained all the time in Cleebourg, Bischwiller and Haguenau, which didn’t have the pleasure of seeing its most famous son passing through this year as Loeb went off, a very unusual occurrence for him, before arriving in his home town. Next year he will devote himself fully to circuit racing, and he also accepted the call of his president, Nicolas Deschaux, to take under his wing the members of the current and future FFSA French Rally Teams of which he was named captain on Thursday. . The final day of Rally France-Alsace consisted of six stages, a total of 56. 58 km. . The two highest-placed drivers at the start of the fourth leg, Sébastien Chardonnet (16th overall and WRC3 leader) and Stéphane Lefevbre (22nd and first in the R2 class) nursed the comfortable lead they had pulled out on their closest pursuers. The first had no problems. . The second gave himself a fright under braking in Bischwiller (SS16), and he had another scare after the car that started in front of him lost a wheel in Haguenau (SS17)! Jérémie Serieys was boosted by his excellent performance on Saturday afternoon and set the first two fastest times in the R2 class. . After the brief halt in the streets of Haguenau at lunchtime, the crews set off for Cleebourg and Bischwiller. Chardonnet finished the rally at his own rhythm and drove very carefully to see the flag in second place in WRC3. This result was good enough to give him the world title in the category subject to ratification of the results by the FIA. . Lefevbre strolled home to the finish in Rally France-Alsace without ever being really under threat. The youngest driver in the FFSA French Team broke into the top 20 and won the R2 class. Mission accomplished! . Serieys was on top of his game since Saturday afternoon and rounded off the French success in R2. His first international outing was crowned by convincing performances. Quotes Sébastien Chardonnet (no. 51 Citroën DS3 R3) “It’s really very important for us to clinch the WRC3 title. Despite the fact that we chose to hang on to our second place in the category, which could have seemed a bit frustrating, we really had great fun in the DS3 R3 since Thursday. Now, we just have to win the Citroën Top Driver, which will be decided in Rally Great Britain, to achieve all our objectives. After being part of the ‘Collectif Equipe de France’ last year we can’t thank the FFSA enough for giving us the opportunity to enjoy another new experience in Rally France-Alsace.” Stéphane Lefevbre (no. 142 Peugeot 208 R2) “As we started this morning in a position where we didn’t have much to gain, we decided to nurse our lead in the R2 class. We just kept up a steady enough pace to maintain our concentration, see the flag and win. It was a very difficult rally for us with three punctures in the second leg and a mechanical problem all day yesterday. But we’ve scored the result we wanted! We’re very satisfied and it’s a great way to thank the FFSA and its partners for putting their confidence in us and integrating us into the French team.” Jérémie Sérieys (no. 143 Renault Twingo R2) “This morning we kept the same setup as the one that worked so well yesterday afternoon. It paid off again as despite conditions that were still very tricky, I felt very much at home at the wheel of the Twingo. Right from the start we set a good pace that we were able to maintain in the last three stages. Overall, we’re very happy with the outcome of the rally, which we were able to take part in thanks to the FFSA. First of all, the WRC is really a totally different world for us. Secondly, we covered the 310 odd km without too many errors while making pretty good technical choices. Today, the result is very positive for us.” Info Photos available on media.fsa.org PRESS CONTACT Georges Colin – GSM: + 33 6 48 91 36 48 – Email: gcolin@ffsa.org