Milan, October 15, 2012 – Peugeot Italia driver Paolo Andreucci has become
Italian Rally Champion for the seventh time, his sixth title with Pirelli, while the
Pirelli-equipped Ford Fiesta of Giandomenico Basso won the Sanremo Rally last
weekend. A third place finish for the privateer Peugeot of Alessandro Perico
made it two Pirelli-equipped cars on the podium, rounding off a hugely successful
weekend for the Italian tyre manufacturer, against stiff competition from the
regular teams on the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, of which the Sanremo
Rally was a scoring round once more.
Of the top five finishers, four were equipped by Pirelli: thanks also to the brilliant
performance from Stefano Albertini in another Peugeot 207 S2000.
Pirelli introduced a new evolution within the famed RX family of tyres in Sanremo:
the RX5c, which was made available to all competitors. The RX5c, which
specifically targets long and moderately abrasive stages – a well-known hallmark
of Sanremo – helped make the difference for Basso and Andreucci, while a
strong performance from Perico underlined how the new tyre is equally effective
in private hands.
The latest RX7a tyre, a medium compound, was also available – and this was
used by the majority of competitors in low temperatures and on the daunting 44-
kilometre Ronde stage run in the dark on Friday night. Basso’s victory on this
stage (one of five that he claimed on the 10-stage event) proved decisive to his
overall success.
Andreucci, who drove conservatively to fifth place in order to ensure another
Italian title with Pirelli, said: “The product was good before, but the latest
evolution has taken it to a different level, especially on long stages, both in terms
of consistency and speed. Put simply, Pirelli has been key to winning the title
again. I’d like to thank everybody from Pirelli for their contribution to our
campaign this year, particularly Terenzio Testoni, who has been on hand all the
time to give us the right advice.”
Rally winner Basso, driving a turbocharged Ford Fiesta RRC, added: “Pirelli tyres
made the difference here. This was an extremely difficult rally where the grip was
changing all the time, but Pirelli tyres gave me the confidence I needed to push
hard even on the most difficult stages.”
Completing Pirelli’s success in Sanremo was victory for Simone Campedell’s
Citroen DS3 R3T, while over in Spain Massimo Pedretti won the historic Rally
Costa Brava with a Lancia 037 using Pirelli P7 Corsa Classic tyres.
Pirelli’s product manager Terenzio Testoni, who has led the development of the
latest generation of Pirelli rally tyres, concluded: “This is a very important result
that we have been working towards for a long while and a historic weekend. We
are delighted to see the latest evolution of our products winning on their debut,
both with factory drivers and privateers, on a huge variety of different cars, and
on a rally that is one of the most challenging in Italy. The latest evolution of the
RX tyres improve both safety and driveability, as all the drivers have attested,
particularly on longer stages. Pirelli-equipped cars dominated the Sanremo Rally
and on behalf of everybody at Pirelli I would like to congratulate Giandomenico
and Paolo. I would also like to thank Pirelli’s research and development director
Maurizio Boiocchi and motorsport director Paul Hembery, both of whom have
been instrumental in the evolution of these winning tyres, as well as PierLuigi
Decancellis, who heads up the motorsport compounds department, and everyone
else who has worked with us. Now we look forward to more success in the
future.”
The next round of the Italian Rally Championship is the Rally Costa Smeralda
from 25-27 October, where Pirelli be aiming to clinch the manufacturers’ title with
Peugeot Italia.
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