Pirelli Rally World Champion 2003: from Solberg (Subaru) the 19th World Crown

Petter Solberg drove his Pirelli-fitted Subaru Impreza WRC to a domination victory at the Rally Great Britain, 14th and last WRC event 2003. Thanks to his 4th season win, the 5th of his career, the Norvegian is the most winning driver of the 2003 WRC and is now crowned with 2003 Drivers' World Title. Congratulations to Citron: thanks to Loeb's 2nd place and Colin McRae's 4th in Wales the French Manufacturers scored their 1st World Rally Crown. On the very tricky gravel Stages of Wales Pirelli scored a really impressive result. This 130th win of the PZero range of tyres in the World Championship history becomes even more precious if you consider that Solberg won 13 Stages out of 18 (8 out of 8 on Saturday) of the last WRC event. On the slippery Welsh gravel ground Pirelli fitted the Imprezas WRC with its PZero KM tyres in step 6 (soft compound) and 6+ (super-soft), which granted the perfect degree of top performance and durability with every situation. Pirelli scores its 19th World Rally Crown: in total they are 8 for Drivers' and 11 for Manufacturers. This year's success brings even more satisfacftion, considering that Subaru and Pirelli had been unable to win a single rally util May, and from then one they scored 4 wins out of the 8 remaining events. Some of these victories came clearly thanks to a superb tyre perfomance, as it happened in Cyprus, on the flooded Corsican asphalt and once again in Great Britain. On the Welsh gravel Stages the PZero supremacy is confirmed by 4 times World Champion Tommi Makinen 3rd place, and also by the fantastic 7th place scored by Manfred Stohl at the wheel of and 'old' Peugeot but nevertheless capable of fighting at same level with the works 206 WRCs. " A special thank to the Subaru Team -Paul Hembery, head of Pirelli Motorsport, says-. Together with them, in 10 consecutive WRC seasons, Pirelli scored a total of 6 World Rally Crowns. RALLY GREAT BRITAIN - Final standings 1 Solberg-Mills Subaru Impreza WRC2003 3h28m58.1 2 Loeb-Elena Citron Xsara WRC +43.6 3 Makinen-Lindstrom Subaru Impreza WRC2003 +2m58.8 4 C. McRae-Ringer Citron Xsara WRC +5m28.1 5 Duval-Prevot Ford Escort03 WRC +7m16.1 6 Loix-Smeets Peugeot 206 WRC +8m06.5 7 Stohl-Minor Peugeot 206 WRC +3m33.0 8 Kresta-Tomanek Peugeot 206 WRC +3m59.6 2003 RALLY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - Final standings DRIVERS: 1. Solberg p. 72; 2. Loeb 71; 3. Sainz p.63; 4. Burns 58; 5. Martin 49; 6. Gronholm 46; 7. C. McRae 45; 8. Makinen e Duval 30; . . . MANUFACTURERS: 1. Citron p.160; 2. Peugeot 145; 3. Subaru 109; 4. Ford 92; 5. Skoda 20; 6. Hyundai 12 PIRELLI's 19 WORLD RALLY CROWNS

Drivers	Manufacturers
1980 Walter Rhrl (Fiat)	1974 Lancia
1981 Ari Vatanen (Ford)	1975 Lancia
1987 Juha Kankkunen (Lancia)	1976 Lancia
1990 Carlos Sainz (Toyota)	1977 Fiat
1992 Carlos Sainz (Toyota)	1978 Fiat
1995 Colin McRae (Subaru)	1980 Fiat
2001 Richard Burns (Subaru)	1983 Lancia
2003 Petter Solberg (Subaru)	1987 Lancia
	1995 Subaru
	1996 Subaru
	1997 Subaru