Pirelli Fast But Unlucky

Lamia (GR), 26 June 2005 - At the end of the all-gravel Rally of Greece, round eight of the World Championship, the Peugeot-Pirelli of Marcus Gronholm has finished in fourth place. The Finn led for most of the first day and was challenging for victory until the end of the second, until a broken transmission component put an end to his hopes. Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb won the rally, in a record-breaking fifth consecutive victory. Subaru-Pirelli driver Petter Solberg was also unlucky. He demonstrated good pace over the opening morning of the rally, but was slowed by a driveshaft problem on Friday afternoon. This meant that he had to run second on the road during leg two, and sweep away loose gravel for the other competitors. He consequently ends the event ninth overall. The Mitsubishi-Pirelli of Harri Rovanpera finished fifth. His team mate Gigi Galli ends the event seventh, despite an engine problem on the penultimate day. Conditions were hot and abrasive throughout the Acropolis Rally, which is renowned as one of the toughest events of the championship. Pirelli's three partner teams (Subaru, Peugeot and Mitsubishi) mostly chose the XR tyre throughout the event, which won in Greece last year. The XR is the toughest tyre of the entire P Zero range, designed to withstand extremes of temperature and wear. However, Subaru and Mitsubishi used the wider KP tyre in the slightly softer conditions of the final leg, which was thought to have a small competitive advantage. Greece was also the fourth round of the Junior World Rally Championship, supplied exclusively by Pirelli. The Suzuki of P-G Andersson dominated the category, without picking up a single puncture in the abrasive and rocky conditions. Pirelli's Rally Manager Fiorenzo Brivio comments: " This was not an event that went well for us. Although the performance of both the XR and KP tyre was generally very good, our drivers were very unlucky to have incidents that prevented them from demonstrating the true performance of our P Zero tyres." Acropolis Rally (8/16) - Final classification 1 Loeb-Elena Citroen Xsara WRC 4h12m53.7s 4 Gardemeister-Honkanen Ford Focus WRC +1m36.2s 3 Sainz-Marti Citroen Xsara WRC +2m11.1s 4 Gronholm-Rautianen Peugeot 307 WRC +2m56.4s 5 Hirvonen-LehtinenFord Focus WRC +3m13.2s 6 Rovanpera-Pietilainen Mitsubishi Lancer WRC +3m44.4s 7 Galli-d'Amore Mitsubishi Lancer WRC +5m19.6s 8 Martin-Park Peugeot 307 WRC +5m37.5s 9 Solberg-Mills Subaru Impreza WRC +6m03.0s 10 Pons-Julia Citroen Xsara WRC +9m13.4s Driver points: 1 Loeb 65; 2 Solberg 42; 3 Martin& Gardemeister 39; 5 Gronholm 37; 6 Rovanpera 16; 7 Sainz & Stohl 11; 8 Kresta 10; 9 H Solberg 9; 10 Panizzi 7; 11 Duval 5; 12 Galli & Carlsson & Warmbold 4 Manufacturer points: 1 Citroen 84; 2 Peugeot 79; 3 Ford 57; 4 Subaru 47; 5 Mitsubishi 37; 6 Skoda 8 Next round: Rally Argentina, 15-17 July