PIRELLI LOCKS OUT PODIUM ON RALLY POLAND
Pirelli’s Scorpion gravel tyres have locked out the podium on Rally Poland, the latest round of the European Rally Championship, with three different cars: the Skoda Fabia of Mikolaj Marczyk, the Hyundai i20 R5 of Tom Kristensson, and the Ford Fiesta Rally2 of Ken Torn.
All three drivers made the most of the reliability of the Pirelli Scorpion: first and foremost Marczyk, who took the lead after Hyundai driver Nils Solans – also running Pirelli tyres – encountered problems on SS6. He led home Kristensson and Torn: a full 13 seconds ahead of the fourth-placed crew.
The highly variable conditions of the roads in Poland put the Scorpion tyres to a challenging test. On Saturday morning, the mixed wet and dry surfaces required all the grip offered by the supersoft K8 compound, with a tread pattern especially formulated to evacuate loose mud and gravel, as well as the soft K6, with a more open tread pattern. These were used by the top four cars in the overall classification, led by Solans.
In the afternoon, with higher temperatures up to 20 degrees on dry and clean surfaces, the soft K6A tyre (also used in the World Rally Championship) came to the fore thanks to its resistance to wear and punctures, as well as its dependable consistency. On Sunday, the sandy base and shorter stages led the drivers to use mainly the K8 in the morning and then the K6A in the afternoon.
Pirelli’s Rally Activity Manager Terenzio Testoni said: “We are very satisfied with the result of the rally and the performance of the Scorpion, although it doesn’t come as a surprise to us. We know all the strengths of this range very well: especially its reliability in all conditions and on every car. This was very much a team effort, where not just the quality of the product counted, but also the contribution of our engineers and their ability to work with teams and drivers to extract maximum performance.”
Laurent Pellier, driving an Opel Corsa Rally4, won the ERC4 Junior category: the European Championship’s series for up-and-coming drivers, exclusively supplied by Pirelli.