Corentine Quiniou (born 16 May 1982 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) is a French

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

Early life

In a 2007 interview with ''Madmoizelle'', Quiniou stated that she became interested in driving as a young girl while accompanying her father to amateur races, and that she began

karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...

at age 14. In 2001, she joined La Filière in

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

, learning

formula racing Formula racing (known as open-wheel racing in North America) is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. The origin of the term lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single- ...

while continuing her studies.

Racing career

In 2004, Quiniou finished third in Rallye des Princesses in an Alfa Romeo Spider Duetto. The following year, she won the 2005 Rallye des Princesses in a

Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in german: Neunelfer) is a two-door 2+2 high performance rear-engined sports car introduced in September 1964 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted flat-six engine and origin ...

, and placed in other races that year, finishing second in the

Rallye Aicha des Gazelles The Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc is a rally which is held in the deserted parts of southern Morocco. The distinctive feature of the rally is that participation is restricted to women only. In 2009, the 20th edition of the rally took p ...

and third in the Rallye Optic 2000 de Tunisie, in the T2 Diesel category driving a

Toyota Land Cruiser The (also sometimes spelled as LandCruiser) is a series of four-wheel drive vehicles produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. It is Toyota's longest running series of models. , the sales of the Land Cruiser totalled more than ...

. In 2006 Quiniou and her teammate Florence Bourgnon finished 49th overall in the Dakar Rally in a Toyota Land Cruiser, the only women's team to complete the race. In 2006 and 2007 Quiniou won the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles. In 2007, she finished 8th overall in the Transafricaine Classic from Paris to Dakar, winning one stage and the all-female classification. During the same year, she finished fifth in the

Classic Endurance Racing Classic Endurance Racing (commonly abbreviated as CER) is a sports car racing series founded in 2004 by Patrick Peter's Peter Auto Ltd. It features classic sports cars and its aim is to support the endurance racing revival. Format The series cons ...

in Europe in a

Chevron B16 The Chevron B16 was a Group 4 sports prototype race car, designed, developed, and built in 1969 by the British racing car manufacturer Chevron Cars The Chevron Cars are anthropomorphic vehicles who were part of an advertising campaign of the ...

. In 2008, she won the Classic Endurance Racing in a Chevron B16, both in Proto 1 ranking and in the drivers' ranking. In the same year she had to withdraw from this edition of Rallye Aicha des Gazelles after the second stage due to a mechanical problem. Quiniou and her partner achieved a victory in 2009 Rallye Aicha des Gazelles. In a

Ford Focus ST The Ford Focus is a compact car (C-segment in Europe) manufactured by Ford Motor Company since 1998. It was created under Alexander Trotman's Ford 2000 plan, which aimed to globalize model development and sell one compact world car, vehicle world ...

she participated in

24 Hours Nürburgring 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

on 24 May, where she placed 100th overall and third of three finishers in her category. Between her participation in the Classic Endurance Racing, Quiniou joined the Gstaad Classic Rally driving a

Jaguar XK150 The Jaguar XK150 is a sports car produced by Jaguar between 1957 and 1961 as the successor to the XK140. Initially it was only available in fixed head coupé (FHC) and drophead coupé (DHC) versions. The roadster without full weather equipmen ...

. In 2010 Quiniou entered the Dubai 24 Hour in an Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 of Nicholas Mee Racing, finishing eighth of ten finishers in class and 49th overall. In her first attempt of Le Tour Auto-Optic 2000, Quiniou placed 25th overall, driving a

Jaguar E-Type The Jaguar E-Type, or the Jaguar XK-E for the North American market, is a British sports car that was manufactured by Jaguar Cars Ltd between 1961 and 1974. Its combination of beauty, high performance, and competitive pricing established the m ...

Allegations of Misconduct

Quiniou and her navigator Florence Migraine Bourgnon on the Toyota team were disqualified in the 2010

for manipulation of their satellite tracking system and altering the odometer of their car. For the 2010 rally, the rules of the race were changed in an attempt to discover whether or not cheating was occurring, a question raised due to suspicions surrounding the Toyota team's record of three first place and one second-place finishes since 2005.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quiniou, Corentine 1982 births Living people French rally drivers French female racing drivers Off-road racing drivers Dakar Rally drivers Racing drivers from Paris American University of Paris alumni French racing drivers