BARUM RALLY GRADUATES PELLIER AS FIA ERC JUNIOR CHAMPION - PIRELLI ONE-TWO WITH KOPECKY AND MARES IN THE OVERALL STANDINGS

The Barum Czech Rally, valid for the FIA ERC European Championship, closes under the banner of the Pirelli colors not only for the first and second place in the overall standings, but also for the closing with one race to spare of the European Junior, of which the P lunga is sole supplier and in which Frenchman Laurent Pellier in an Opel Corsa won.

Pellier, in fact, with his fourth victory of the season, stretched definitively over the competitors who also chased him on the asphalts of the Czech Republic, but without success. From the outset, the Frenchman lined up both Andrea Mabellini in a Renault Clio, who finished second, and his direct pursuer in the championship, Spaniard Oscar Palomo Ortiz in a Peugeot 208.

The overall race standings saw the victory of local glory Jan Kopecky on a Škoda Fabia, followed by Filip Mareš (also on a Skoda Fabia), both equipped with Pirelli tyres. The highly variable race conditions saw the entire range of tyres that Pirelli brought to the race engaged, from the P Zero hard and soft, for dry and wet surfaces, to the Cinturato developed for wet surfaces. For P lunga, the victory in Barum is the fifth out of seven races in the Fia ERC Championship, achieved with four different drivers (Nil Solans, Mikolaj Marczyk, Fabiano De Tommaso and precisely Kopecky) and two different cars, Skoda Fabia and Volkswagen Polo.

"Congratulations to Laurent for his brilliant victory in the Europe Junior: it is always a pleasure to see new talents asserting themselves with passion and determination in this sport," commented Terenzio Testoni, Pirelli Rally Activity manager. "The young Frenchman joins the list of champions that Pirelli, in keeping with its tradition of supporting youth competitions, can say it has helped to raise. About the race in general, I am very satisfied with another positive test of our asphalt tyres, which once again proved decisive for the final victory. We are the tyre brand that has won by far the most races, proving that we have a winning product on all types of road surfaces, regardless of the driver's driving style and the car's characteristics."