Super Soria clinches Clio Trophy crown

The Argentine pairing’s third-place finish at this weekend’s double points counter was enough for them to seal the title after a dominant season in the one-make Renault Clio Rally5 series. 

Soria, winner of every previous round, simply needed to finish sixth overall or higher to guarantee himself the honours. He grabbed the early lead but plummeted down the order on Saturday morning after stopping to change a front right wheel mid-stage.  

The 27-year-old gradually hauled himself back up the order from a lowly fifth overall, eventually ending just 50.8sec back from the top spot. His victory prize includes a three-round drive in next year’s ERC with a Rally4 car.

"I am super happy," exclaimed Soria. "Finally we are champions! This season we worked very hard for every rally - before, during and after each event - and now it's paid off.

"This has been possible thanks to Toksport WRT - I want to thank my mechanics, engineers, all of them! And a special thanks to my co-driver, he is amazing!"

Ghjuvanni Rossi was the class winner at the event and snatched the lead on the first stage of the day when overnight polesitter Giorgio Cogni dropped over two minutes with an excursion. 

He scrapped with Patrik Herczig, who missed out on victory by just 2.4sec but finished the year third in the championship. 

Cogni recovered to take fourth overall as well as second in the championship, while Andrea Mazzocchi rounded out the leaderboard. Sergio Fuentes and Emre Hasbay both crashed out.