Philippe Maloigne enjoyed another strong performance in the 2016 French Rallycross Championship at Faleyras where he has moved up to second place in the Driver Championship, 26 points behind Championship leader Firmin Cadeddu.
The Albatec Racing pilot guided the teams Peugeot 208 RX through out the weekend, showing strong pace and ready to challenge the front runners. In the first Qualifying Heat race, the Frenchman set the third fastest time in the Supercar class and then followed this up by going third fastest again in the 2nd Qualifying Heat race. Going into Sunday for the third round of heats, Maloigne topped the practice times before going fifth fastest in Heat three and then going seventh fastest in Heat four. All of this hard work was enough for him to qualify for the Semi-Finals, where Maloigne went fast enough to land a spot on the front row o the Supercar Final.
After being blocked at the start of the Final, the Frenchman did all he could to try and secure a podium position however his efforts would reward him with sixth place. Despite this finishing position, the Chateauroux winner amassed enough points from the event to move up to second place in the Drivers Championship and look a strong challenger for the 2016 French RX Title.
Maloigne took the positives from his performance over the weekend, “Coming into the race I was feeling very happy and excited to drive the Albatec Peugeot 208 again on the fastest track of the championship. The victory in Chateauroux increased my confidence with fast times in wet and dry conditions, and this weekend I’m very happy to have improved my times from the test and been consistently fast across the whole weekend,” explained Maloigne
“Going into the final I was on the left of the grid, which isn’t the best position at Faleyras, and at the start I got blocked by a slower car in front which dropped me to fourth. To me after such a strong race pace all weekend we had the speed deserving of a podium finish so finishing fourth just wasn’t acceptable! I tried to pass for third at the final corner and we made contact, and I was classified sixth. It wasn’t the best result after all the hard work and efforts from the entire team, however my learning process is good, and I’m second in the championship so we have a lot of positives to take from the weekend.”
Team Boss Andy Scott praised the work of the team and the strong performance of his driver, “It’s been another strong weekend for Albatec and Philippe, with a consistently fast pace across the entire weekend. His lap times from the test two months ago to this weekend shows a great improvement, so we’re all very happy with the overall outcome that sees him move up to second in the championship. After victory at Chateauroux we were feeling pretty good coming into this race, and determined to continue that form into Faleyras to move up the points standings.” explained Scott.
“It’s one of our favourite tracks, we’ve tested here many times, and so we had a good set-up which showed with a strong pace right from free practice. I’m sure without the contact in the final he would have been challenging for at least another podium.”
