In motorsport, victories are sometimes decided by the smallest of margins. This law was once again confirmed on Sunday, April 12 at the Venasque rally. After winning the regional rally in Vaison-la-Romaine by less than two seconds, Nicolas Schifano and his co-driver Angéline Ravier experienced this fortunate outcome at the wheel of their Alpine A110, finishing eight tenths of a second ahead of the runners-up Gaétan Chastagnaret and Maxime Mollier.
“We evolved throughout the weekend with a car that required adjustments, and we come out with a victory,” said a satisfied Nicolas Schifano.
However, the weekend did not start ideally for the pair. “On Saturday, we were in third place three seconds behind due to problems, we tried to gain ground until Sunday morning and ended up with this victory,” said the driver from the ASA Roque-Durance team, for whom Vaucluse is becoming a playground that he enjoys.
A close competition
On the other two steps of the podium, two Skoda Fabia cars were placed, both in R5 version for the second-place finishers.
“It was the duel of four-wheel drive against two-wheel drive, and the former emerged victorious,” joked the president of the Insula Kévin Guidarelli racing team.
But this second round was highly competitive, with the top three crews on the podium all having the potential to win on Sunday afternoon, including defending champion Cédric Scotto. However, Scotto fell short by nine seconds and two tenths of a second, settling for the final podium spot.
It was a tougher challenge for Philippe Baffoun, who was regarded as one of the favorites for victory. Finishing in 23’55”, the second-place finisher of the 2025 Venasque rally had to settle for fourth place, a good distance behind Cédric Scotto.
Praise for the organization
In terms of historic vehicles, there were three classifications: high average, intermediate average, and low average, although the latter did not have any participants. In the intermediate category, Nadine Brulant’s Mazda 323 GTX emerged victorious, following in the footsteps of Jérémie Sauvagnac’s Peugeot 106 in the high average category.
