The 53rd edition of the Antibes Côte d'Azur Rally was the third round in the 2018 French Rally Championship so a competitive entry was in store.

Young driver French driver Nicolas Ciamin and co-driver Thilbaut De la Haye in their Milano Racing-entered Abarth 124 Rally were looking to repeat the R-GT success they had enjoyed two weeks previously on the Rallye Lyon-Charbonnières.

Located on the Antibes Côte d'Azur, this famous rally provides a beautiful backdrop certainty, but it’s also very tough, since there are no fewer than 204 km of timed tests, subdivided into 12 special stages, out of a total rally distance that adds up to 660 km. There were two legs, the first over last Saturday and the second the next day.

Ciamin and Thilbaut would face one other car in the R-GT category, the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup driven by Patrick Rouillard and Guilhem Zazurca, with the powerful German sportscar set to be quite at home of the all asphalt rally and ready to provide a tough challenge.

Ciamin was strong from the go. He took the class lead after the second test stage, the longest of the rally, and held the top spot on the classification almost to the end of the first leg.

A sudden storm however dropped at lot of water on the course during the last two special stages. Despite having fitted slick tyres, Ciamin managed to keep his losses down to just over one minute, slipping from the eighth to the thirteenth place in the overall classification.

Ciamin claimed a prestigious stage win on the second leg, going faster than the rival Porsche on the legendary Col de Turini in the R-GT rankings.

The French driver ended the weekend with second place in the R-GT class, finishing twelfth overall while Rouillard and Zazurca were ninth overall and just 36 seconds ahead. Fifty-nine cars in total finished the rally.

"Once again we have demonstrated how competitive and reliable the Abarth 124 Rally has become,” Ciamin said afterwards. “These roads were tough on [the] mechanics and we did not experience any technical issues. We kept a fast pace that took us to lead [of] the R-GT [category]. Unfortunately, our bold choice of tyres prevented us from grasping the result that was within our reach [but] I’m very confident for the rest of the championship."

With the conclusion of the Antibes Côte d'Azur Rally the French Rally Championship will has reached the two-thirds distance point with six more rallies remaining to be contested this year.

Meanwhile there was a podium for the ‘Scorpion’ on the 45th edition of the Rallye Cesky Krumlov, held in the Czech Republic, as the Abarth 124 Rally of the Agrotec Czech Abarth team driven by local crew, Martin Rada and Jaroslav Jugas, ended up with third place in the R-GT class.

This rally was hit by variable weather conditions which made the super-fast tracks even tougher for the crews. "I am gaining experience with the car and we improved our performance also on overall level in this race,” said a satisfied Rada afterwards. "The Abarth 124 Rally is very competitive on fast courses, like that of the Rally Krumlov.”

Finally, there was also ‘Scorpion’ action on the race tracks last weekend as the ‘ADAC F4 Championship powered by Abarth’ moved onto Germany’s Lausitzring Speedway and the star of the event was Liam Lawson who claimed two wins from the triple header, the New Zealander coming out on top in Race 1 and in Race 3.

However, thanks to winning the middle race as well as coming fourth in the final race, German driver Lirim Zendeli holds the lead of the Driver’s championship classification with 25 points in hand over Lawson. Meanwhile, up-and-coming youngster David Schumacher, son of former F1 driver Ralf, leads the Rookie points standings.

Photos: Abarth 124 Rally (season 2018)