What made
them
famous:
#10
Fabrizia
Pons

But Fabrizia, who is still involved in the sport as an organiser and occasional competitor today (while spending her spare time singing soprano in a choir) is famous for much more than simply being Michele Mouton’s co-driver: as impressive an achievement as that was.

After all, the duo very nearly won the World Rally Championship together in 1982, which would probably have been the rallying news story of the century. Fabrizia then went on to co-drive for Piero Liatti and Ari Vatanen. On the way, she racked up five WRC wins: four with Mouton and one with Liatti - and then she headed for the desert, competing on the famous Dakar Rally.

But that’s not what made her famous. Instead, she is one of just two people to have scored world championship points as a co-driver and as a driver. Fabrizia finished ninth overall and third in Group 1 on Rallye Sanremo in 1978 as a driver, in an Opel Kadett GTE co-driven by Gabriella Zappia, just two years after she made her sporting debut in 1976.

So who is the other person? That would be Jean-Claude Lefebvre, who won the 1978 Safari Rally co-driving for Jean-Pierre Nicolas in a Peugeot 504 (which somehow got to the finish despite having bits hanging off it by the end).

But Jean-Claude arguably enjoyed more consistent success as a driver, finishing fifth on the 1976 Morocco Rally, fifth again in Argentina in 1980, eighth on the Ivory Coast during the same year and finally sixth on the 1981 Safari. All these results were again taken in a Peugeot 504, which was clearly his lucky car.

The Frenchman went on to become head of public relations for Peugeot Sport when he retired from active competition and these days he works for the FIA, world motorsport’s governing body, under the presidency of Jean Todt: his co-driver on the 1977 Tour de Corse, where they finished 10th in a Peugeot 104.

There have been many talented drivers and co-drivers since, but nobody has yet managed to do both.