Hugo Mario Valente (born 17 June 1992) is a French former auto racing driver. He raced in the World Touring Car Championship for SUNRED Engineering, Campos Racing and the Lada factory team having made his debut in the series at the 2012 FIA WTCC Race of China. For 2017, he made the switch to the TCR International Series, where part way through the season he announced his retirement from motorsport. He was born in Choisy-le-Roi and is of Italian descent.

Racing career Formula Renault Eurocup For 2009, Valente moved into car racing and into the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series with SG Formula. He finished the season 24th in the standings with a best result of eighth at the Nürburgring. He stayed in the series for 2010, moving to the new Tech 1 Racing team alongside Arthur Pic and Aaro Vainio. He scored a single podium finish, of second place, on the first weekend at Motorland Aragón and he went on to finish the season 12th on 28 points.

French SEAT León Supercopa After taking a sabbatical in 2011, Valente returned to racing for 2012 in the French SEAT León Supercopa. He led the championship going into the final round at the Circuit Paul Ricard but ultimately lost out to Jimmy Antunes in the final race.

World Touring Car Championship SUNRED Engineering (2012) Valente made his debut in the WTCC at the 2012 FIA WTCC Race of China, driving the SUNRED SR León 1.6T previously driven in the 2012 season by Tiago Monteiro and Hiroki Yoshimoto. He qualified 23rd for the race with the only SR León on the grid. His car was found to be over-boosting later on in Q1 but his best time was set prior to the change being made so his grid slot was unaffected. His best result of the weekend was fifteenth in race one, but he was later dropped to sixteenth in the classification when he was one of five drivers issued with a 30-second penalty for cutting a chicane to avoid a separate incident.

Campos Racing (2013–2015) Valente would stay the WTCC full-time in 2013 season, joining Campos Racing alongside Fernando Monje in a SEAT León WTCC. The start of his season was delayed until the Race of Hungary when Campos introduced their second car. He skipped the Russian and Portuguese rounds of the championship and his car was taken over by European Touring Car Cup driver Nikolay Karamyshev.

Lada Sport (2016) Valtente secured a factory drive with the Lada Sport Rosneft team for 2016. It was a tough season as Valente was unable to make the podium, unlike his teammates Gabriele Tarquini and Nick Catsburg who both took victories. Valente's best results were two fourth place finishes in Morocco and Russia. After scoring points consistently for the first half of the season, Valente would only finish once more in the points across the final four rounds including five retirements. This left him in 12th place overall, three places behind Tarquini and five behind Catsburg. At the end of the season it was announced that Lada would be pulling out of the World Touring Car Championship, leaving Valente without a drive for 2017.

TCR International Series Campos Racing (2015) Valente made his debut in the new for 2015, TCR International Series, at the penultimate round in Thailand. Driving with Campos Racing in their Opel Astra, Valente did not finish the first race of the weekend, although he was still classified. Valente started the second race from pole position as a result of it being a reversed grid race. However, Valente would retire from this race as well.

Craft-Bamboo Racing (2017) Having been unable to secure a seat in the World Touring Car Championship, Valente rejoined the TCR International Series with the Craft-Bamboo Racing team alongside TCR frontrunners and former World Touring Car rivals, Pepe Oriola and James Nash. At the first round in Georgia, Valente retired from the first race of the season, but finished in ninth place in the second and scoring his first TCR points. Valente took his first podium of the season in the second round at Bahrain, with a second place finish. He followed this up with a third place in the second race of the weekend. However a non-points scoring weekend at Spa-Francorchamps dealt a blow to his championship hopes. Although Valente finished sixth in the first race at Monza, a further retirement in the second, having started the race from pole left Valente in tenth place in the championship, 67 points adrift from the championship leader at that point in time.

Shortly before the round at the Salzburgring, it was announced that Valente would retire from motorsport with immediate effect, citing the need to be closer to his family, in particular his young daughter. His seat at the team was taken over by former British Touring Car driver, Dan Lloyd.

Racing record

Complete Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 DC Points 2009 SG FormulaCAT1CAT2SPA1SPA2HUN1HUN2SIL1SIL2LMS1LMS2NÜR1NÜR2ALC1ALC2 24th 5 2010 Tech 1 RacingALC1ALC2SPA1SPA2BRN1BRN2MAG1MAG2HUN1HUN2HOC1HOC2SIL1SIL2CAT1CAT2 12th 28

Complete World Touring Car Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 DC Points 2012 SUNRED Engineering SUNRED SR León 1.6T ITA1 ITA2 ESP1 ESP2 MAR1 MAR2 SVK1 SVK2 HUN1 HUN2 AUT1 AUT2 POR1 POR2 BRA1 BRA2 USA1 USA2 JPN1 JPN2 CHN116 CHN218 MAC1 MAC2 NC 0 2013 Campos Racing SEAT León WTCC ITA1 ITA2 MAR1 MAR2 SVK1 SVK2 HUN112 HUN219 AUT1Ret AUT2DNS RUS1 RUS2 POR118 POR214 ARG113 ARG28 USA113 USA214 JPN1 JPN2 CHN1Ret CHN212 MAC1Ret MAC2Ret 21st 4 2014 Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 MAR18 MAR23 FRA16 FRA210 HUN110 HUN23 SVK111 SVK2C AUT1NC AUT2Ret RUS1Ret RUS29 BEL112 BEL29 ARG1Ret ARG2Ret BEI112 BEI211 CHN19 CHN28 JPN15 JPN2Ret MAC1NC MAC23 12th 85 2015 Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 ARG1Ret ARG2DNS MAR115 MAR29 HUN13 HUN28 GER1Ret GER2DNS RUS112 RUS28 SVK15 SVK25 FRA1Ret FRA26 POR1Ret POR27 JPN110 JPN22 CHN18 CHN2Ret THA1Ret THA2DNS QAT13 QAT26 9th 120 2016 Lada Sport Rosneft Lada Vesta WTCC FRA15 FRA27 SVK112 SVK2Ret HUN16 HUN29 MAR1Ret MAR24 GER16 GER210 RUS14 RUS27 POR1Ret POR29 ARG1Ret ARG2Ret JPN1Ret JPN213 CHN16 CHN212 QAT1Ret QAT2Ret 12th 78

Complete TCR International Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 DC Points 2015 Campos Racing Opel Astra OPC SEP1 SEP2 SHA1 SHA2 VAL1 VAL2 ALG1 ALG2 MNZ1 MNZ2 SAL1 SAL2 SOC1 SOC2 RBR1 RBR2 MRN1 MRN2 CHA121† CHA2Ret MAC1 MAC2 NC 0 2017 Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing SEAT León TCR RIM1Ret RIM29 BHR12 BHR23 SPA115 SPA2Ret MNZ16 MNZ2Ret SAL1 SAL2 HUN1 HUN2 OSC1 OSC2 CHA1 CHA2 ZHE1 ZHE2 DUB1 DUB2 16th 46 † Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

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