MEDIA INFORMATION

2016 FIA (WRC) Neste Rally

The MICHELIN LTX Force and MICHELIN Latitude Cross ready for ’s leaps

The forerunner of today’s Rally Finland was organised for the first time in 1951 as a qualifying event for the Rallye Monte-Carlo. In 1973, the fixture featured as a round of the inaugural World Rally Championship and has since become known across the world for its high-speed stages and spectacular jumps.

The total length of the 2016 Neste Rally Finland is 1,370.66km, including 333.99km divided into 24 stages, with 43 percent that distance new compared with last season’s event. Based as ever in the university town of Jyväskylä, the service park will be the show’s base and a big crowd is expected to turn out once again to see the cars and crews during the lunchtime and evening breaks (there are no remote service halts this year). There will also be a high number of spectators on the stages which offer a unique high-speed spectacle to a backdrop of forests and lakes which always puts tyres to an exacting test.

To cover the challenges traditionally associated with Rally Finland, Michelin Motorsport will provide its WRC partners with a selection of H4 (hard compound) and S4 (soft) MICHELIN LTX Force tyres, while its WRC2 crews will be able to choose between the H90 and S80 variants of the MICHELIN Latitude Cross. For the past five years, the ‘S’ version has been the preferred option 96 percent of the time, evidence of the drivers’ confidence in its ability to combine the performance and robustness they expect for the event’s notoriously difficult stages.

“It is a rally which calls for a high level of precision and grip,” says Jacques Morelli, manager of Michelin’s World Rally Championship programme. “The stage surface tends to be hard-packed but also sandy underneath, so good grip and traction can be decisive factors over the route’s mix of narrow and wide stages, with some portions that are extremely technically challenging. Spectators in the Jämsä region will be treated to one of the finest shows of the season. The jumps are always impressive, of course, as are the high speeds reached by the cars, even though the averages tend to be lower than those we saw in Poland at the beginning of July. In contrast, the stages are unlikely to cut up as much for the second passes. Whatever the conditions, the Michelin LTX Force and Michelin Latitude Cross were developed to take these characteristics in their stride and we feel reasonably confident ahead of the .”

This time round, the infamous Ouninpohja stage is being run in the opposite direction to usual and today’s drivers have no previous experience of it in this form. The cars are likely to leap high and far to provide the spectators with exceptional entertainment.

Didier Laurent – [email protected] – Phone: +33.6.75.60.50.62 Alessandro Barlozzi – [email protected] – Phone: +33.6.42.23.55.93

It will also be the first experience of the current-generation crews of ‘Lempää’ (last run in 1999) and ‘Oittila’ (run only once before as ‘Mutanen’ in 1994). Statistically, local drivers have always gone well on their home event, with 54 of the 65 editions to date being won by Finns. Past victors include and Marcus Grönholm (seven wins each), while the 2014 and 2015 rallies were won by Motorsport’s Jari-Matti Latvala and . The first French crew to claim the event was and Bernard Occelli in 1994 ( Delta HF Integrale). They have since been imitated by Sébastien Loeb and ’s in 2008 ( C4 WRC), 2011 and 2012 (DS3 WRC), and Sébastien Ogier / (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) in 2013. Other ‘foreigners’ to have beaten the Finns in their back garden are Estonia’s Markko Märtin (2003) and Spain’s (1990), plus four Swedes, although only one in the WRC era (1989). Michelin enjoys a highly successful record on Rally Finland.

The MICHELIN LTX Force S4 and H4, and the MICHELIN Latitude H90 and S80

Size: 205/65R15 (17/65-15)

Width: 205mm

Sidewall height: 133mm

Interior diameter: 15 inches

Tread pattern: asymmetric and directional (i.e. a left-hand side and a right-hand side tyre)

Surface: non-sealed surfaces

Use of the H4 and H90: aggressive, hard-wearing surfaces – dry ground – temperature: >15°C

Use of the S4 and S80: wet or damp dirt – temperature: <15°C

Rallies where the H4 and the H90 are the nominated tyres: Mexico, Portugal, Italy, Australia, Spain

Rallies where the S4 and the S80 are the nominated tyres: Argentina, Poland, Finland, Wales

Michelin’s staff for the 2016 Neste Rally Finland

- 1 manager

- 1 development engineer

- 4 Technical Team Advisors

- 2 coordinators

- 8 fitters

Michelin has 1,780 tyres for Rally Finland (WRC: 720 / WRC2: 800 / Junior WRC: 280).

Didier Laurent – [email protected] – Phone: +33.6.75.60.50.62 Alessandro Barlozzi – [email protected] – Phone: +33.6.42.23.55.93