115th World-Championship victory for Pirelli at the 2000 Rally of Portugal

MATOSINHOS (Portugal), March 19, 2000 - Richard Burns brilliantly drove in Portugal his Pirelli-fitted Subaru to its 2nd consecutive win in the 2000 Rally World Championship. Burns won 3 out of 3 Stages of Leg 3, and final (12 wins totally out of 23 Stages in the event), thus being able to catch and overtake Marcus Gronholm's Peugeot for the final victory.

This is the 115th World Champ. victory for Pirelli, which used in Portugal just three different types (KM4, K2 and K4 respectively) of its PZero gravel range of tyres. Burns' winning Subaru had just one puncture over the whole event: it happened during Leg 1, but thanks to the EMI anti-deflation system he didn't realize what had happened until the Stage end.

Thanks to the Portugal result, Burns now leads the Drivers' World Championship, as Subaru-Pirelli (which in Portugal made its Impreza WRC 2000 have its debut) increased their Manufacturers' lead.

Mitsubishi drivers, Stohl and Menzi, give even more value to Pirelli by increasing their lead in Group N.

FINAL STANDINGS (23 SSs in total):

1. Burns-Reid (Subaru-Pirelli), 4h34m00.0; 2. Gronholm (Peugeot) + 6.5; 3. Sainz (Ford) + 2m09.2; 4. Rovanpera (Toyota) +3m18.2; 5. Delecour (Peugeot) +4m06.3; 6. Martin (toyota) +6m11.6; . . .; 9. Gardemeister (SEAT-Pirelli) + 8m24.2; 10. Auriol (SEAT-Pirelli) + 12m38.0

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS (after 4 events)

Drivers:
1. Burns pt.22; 2. Makinen e Gromnholm 16; 4. Sainz 13; 5. Kankkunen 11; 6. McRae e Auriol 4; 8. Gardemeister, Radstrom e Rovanpera 3. . .

Manufacturers:
1. Subaru-Pirelli pt.35; 2. Mitsubishi e Peugeot 20; 4. Ford 13; 5. SEAT-Pirelli 7; 6. Skoda 3

Group N:
1. Stohl pt.23; 2. Menzi 14; 3. Campos 10; 4. Sanchez 7 . . .

Next World Champ. event: Catalunya (Spain, all asphalt), 30 March - 2 April