Pirelli on top of the mountain in Italy and France

Simone Faggioli and his Pirelli-equipped Norma M20 FC Zytek have underlined their extraordinary performance at the traditional opening round of the European Hillclimb Championship in France: Saint Jean du Garde – Col Saint Pierre. Meanwhile, back at home in Italy on the famous Sanremo Rally, there were three significant wins for Pirelli drivers.

Faggioli breaks his own record. As he prepares for an assault on the legendary Pikes Peak hillclimb in Colorado later this year, the 10-time European Champion in this specialised discipline underlined his scintillating form, making the very most of his car and its Pirelli P Zero supersoft tyres. On the first of two runs he broke the course record of 2m14.848s that he had established back in 2016, setting a new best time of 2m14.143s at an average speed of 136kph. Unfortunately, a mechanical problem meant that the Italian was not able to do a second run and match the victory he claimed on this event last year.

Andreucci sets a new record for consecutive wins at Sanremo. Faggioli’s record was set during the same weekend that another new benchmark was established by one of Pirelli’s best-known champions: Paolo Andreucci. The reigning Italian rally champion, co-driven by Anna Andreussi in their Peugeot 208 T16, won the famous Sanremo Rally for the fourth consecutive time, which nobody else in rallying history has ever done before.

Completing Pirelli’s triumph were two more class victories at the Sanremo Rally, with Lucio Da Zanche and Daniele De Luis winning the historic section in their Porsche 911 SC on Pirelli P7 Corsa Classic tyres, while Gabriele Cogni and Marco Pollicino dominated the Leggenda classification in a Skoda Fabia R5, running on the same Pirelli P Zero RK5 tyres that Andreucci used to win overall. Andrea Crugnola also triumphed in the Italian asphalt championship category, taking a Ford Fiesta R5 to sixth overall.

Terenzio Testoni, Pirelli rally activity manager. “We were eagerly anticipating this weekend as it contained two very important events for our tyres and their drivers. In France, Simone Faggioli underlined the excellence of the Pirelli P Zero product for hillclimbs, which has claimed the championship every year since we entered the sport. Only bad luck meant he wasn’t able to complement his brilliant new course record with another overall victory. On the Sanremo Rally, which celebrated its 90th anniversary this year, the stages were as usual extremely variable and challenging. Drivers had to tackle fog, slippery surfaces and dirty roads during the night stages on Friday, mainly using the soft compound P Zero RKW7B tyres. On Saturday, good weather and dry roads offered plenty of grip, where Paolo Andreucci used the harder P Zero RK5 tyres to beat the record for consecutive wins on this legendary Italian event.”