CROATIA RALLY, FINDING GRIP WILL BE A REAL CHALLENGE FOR ALL CREWS

A feature of the rally will be the slippery and uneven surfaces on the narrow but quick roads around Zagreb

The P Zero Hard is the prime choice. Also available are the wet weather Cinturato and the P Zero Soft as the option

Testoni: “Watch out for the dirt that builds up on the road surface. Tyre management is a key to success”

The Croatia Rally is always a closely contested challenge and once again this year it marks the start of the asphalt events for both the WRC and the JWRC. The 20 special stages, over a total of 304.38 kilometres are now well known to the drivers, but that does not mean they are any less difficult or insidious. Here are the main challenges:

• A big discrepancy between the types of road surface, which are generally slippery, with different grip levels from one stage to the next
• Many sections with uneven asphalt and bumps, suffering the effects of the weather
• The nature of the roads, which are fast, but at the same time narrow, while the the surface itself can get worse as more cars drive through
• Occasional rain is forecast for the weekend and it can be intermittent, but also heavy

PIRELLI TYRES IN CROATIA
The available tyres are: 

P Zero RA WRC: Pirelli’s asphalt rally tyre is available in two compounds. For Croatia, the prime choice will be the hard compound version (P Zero RA WRC HA), best suited to tackling the most abrasive road surfaces and the longest stages, while the soft compound version (P Zero RA WRC SA) will be the option, usually best suited to more slippery conditions or when the asphalt is damp due to rain or night time frost.

P Zero RA: is the range for Rally2 and Rally3 cars, therefore used for WRC2, WRC3 and Junior WRC. Here too it is available in the hard compound version (RA5A), which in Croatia is the prime.  The P Zero RA tyres share many of the characteristics of the WRC tyres fitted to the top tier cars.

For the Rally2 cars, Croatia marks the debut of the new soft tyre, the RA7+C, which delivers improved performance when the road surface is a slippery mix of damp and dry. The new soft RA7+A tyre, developed for Rally3 cars, is also making its debut on the Croatian roads and has similar characteristics.

Cinturato RW: All four-wheel drive category cars have a rain tyre available, suitable for wet or very damp asphalt. The Cinturato WRC RWB was developed exclusively for Rally1 cars. Rally2 have the new RWC, while the Rally3 cars will use the Cinturato RW1C.

The rules state that each Rally1 car can use a total of 28 tyres over the course of the rally. The allocation is 28 prime P Zero RA WRC HA tyres, 18 of the option P Zero RA WRC SA and 12 of the wet Cinturato RWB. The WRC2 and WRC3 (as well as the Junior) category cars can use up to 26 tyres, the allocation being 26 prime, 18 option and 12 wet.

PIRELLI QUOTE 
Terenzio Testoni, Rally Activity Manager: “Tyre management has always been a key factor in Croatia, where the roads are fast but also very smooth. Actually, the real challenge for all crews will be grip, which can be really poor in some sections which tend to get very dirty. Last year, the dirt that built up over every run was a real feature of the rally, which is why use of the soft tyre was widespread even on perfectly dry surfaces. I expect it will be an unpredictable rally all the way to the finish, with plenty of drama as always.”