Nearly two months on from his last Clio R3T outing, in the Rallye de France-Alsace, Axel Garcia was back at the wheel of the latest addition to the Renault Sport Technologies motorsport/customer range. Shrugging off some testing weather conditions in the south of France, Axel made an assured start to the rally on some very wet roads.

Gauging the risks facing them in each special, Garcia and Pomares gradually picked up the pace and were in confident mood in the closing stages despite the return of the rain, proving the point by posting the second-fastest R3 time in the very last special.

“It was a very tough weekend,” said Axel Garcia. “The weather was very changeable and it was the same for everyone. We’ve never driven the Clio R3T in conditions like this, but we tried not to push too hard and let the car show what it can do. We gradually got into the race and improved the set-up as we went along. In the end, we came away with a good result.”

There was a lot of satisfaction in the Renault Sport Technologies camp as last year’s French Rally champion brought his 2014 programme to a convincing conclusion.

“Axel drove a very intelligent race and he made the most of all the experience he’s picked up this year,” said Renault Sport Technologies Team Manager Sylvain Alanore. “He showed the kind of race management that we haven’t seen from him at this level before, and delivered a performance that got better and better as it went on, which was no mean feat considering the weather and the standard of the competition. Thanks to that, we were able to go about our work this weekend with a minimum of fuss.

“They weren’t exactly typical conditions for the Rallye du Var, but that didn’t put him off,” added Sylvain Alanore. “He kept his head and had a clear idea of the race strategy he wanted to follow. It was a consistent performance and it underlined all the potential he’s shown in our cars, from the Twingo R.S. R1 last year to the Twingo R.S. R2 Evo and the Clio R3T. He outperformed all the other “junior” drivers competing in the rally and it took two battle-hardened drivers to beat him in R3. Axel has put in a first-class performance at an event that puts the accent on experience. My congratulations to him.”