RALLY AND CHAMPIONSHIP VICTORY FOR PIRELLI IN SANREMO

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 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 .

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 from 25-27 October, where Pirelli be aiming to clinch the manufacturers’ title with Peugeot Italia.

Ends

For more information about Pirelli, please contact Anthony Peacock on +44 (0)7765 896 930 or [email protected]