FIA-GT Race at Oschersleben: teams on Pirelli confident

Milan, 26 June 2006 - The track at which Pirelli P Zero Racings won in 2004 and 2005 with the Maserati MC12s will host the third round of the 2006 FIA-GT Championship this weekend. The Oschersleben circuit is well known for its tortuousness and smooth asphalt. The former will be to the advantage of the teams that establish the best set-up with which to fully exploit their cars' torque when exiting corners and limit understeer; the latter will impose a minimal wear rate on the tyres, which will have variations of soft compounds for increased grip.

That is one of the reasons why Pirelli Competizioni will have on offer in Germany a series of interesting new developments specifically designed for the Oschersleben race. In the GT1 class, the Aston Martin DBR9s of BMS-Scuderia Italia will use a soft rear slick tyre, which tested positively during the recent 24 Hours of Le Mans. Meanwhile, Pirelli has devised for the Vitaphone Racing Maseratis, one of which dominated the 2005 race driven by Babini-Biagi, a completely new P Zero Racing variant with soft compounds for both the front and rear ends of the MC12s: that new tyre combination produced excellent results during test sessions that took place at Mugello in mid-June.

And for the GT2 class cars the Pirelli engineers have also developed a new P Zero Racing for the Ferrari F430 GTCs of JMB-GruppeM and AF Corse with medium compounds for both the front and rear tyres, which have proved to be especially effective. A great deal of attention has also been paid to the tyres of the Porsche 996 GT3-RSRs of Ebimotors. Pirelli Competizioni will supply a different medium tyre for the Porsche's rear axle and an entirely new soft compounded cover for the front end: these, too, have been especially developed for the Oschersleben track, where soft or medium soft tyres are used more than on any other circuit.
As a result of this extensive racing tyre development work, Pirelli will also take to Germany a rear rain cover for the GT1 class cars, which has a completely new structure, compounds and tread pattern.

Pierluigi De Cancellis, Circuit Manager of Pirelli Competizioni expects some excitement during the German race weekend. He said, "I think it will be a really spectacular and hard fought race until the last metre. In addition, the tortuous and slippery track will do much to complicate the task of the drivers and teams, who will also have to withstand the heat forecast for Oschersleben. The duels to watch carefully will be those between the top cars carrying ballast, which will have to defend themselves against their adversaries who will start carrying less weight. The high degree of competitiveness shown in recent tests and at Le Mans by the soft P Zero Racing tyres destined for the teams supported by Pirelli Competizioni certainly enables us to be optimistic".

For more information and pictures on Pirelli's motorsport activities visit: www.pirellicompetizioni.com
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