Pirelli stars on dry Monte Carlo asphalt

The first event of the 2002 World Championship saw dry asphalt over most of the opening leg of the Monte Carlo Rally, not typical conditions for one of the classic events in the sport. Instead of the expected mixture of dry roads at the lower altitudes and an ice/snow combination high in the mountains, drivers had only a small area of snow to deal with on the famous Sisteron test.

Nevertheless Pirelli's 2002 driver line up of Tommi Makinen/Petter Solberg (both Subaru) and Colin McRae/Carlos Sainz (Ford) were able to set a fast and consistent pace, Sainz, McRae and Makinen all claiming fastest times during the day's four stages using the RS9 dry asphalt tyre.
Sadly the conditions meant that Pirelli was not able to show the performance of the new WX90, introduced especially for this rally, and the cancellation of one of the Sisteron stages (because of spectator crowding) was a further frustration. 'After Carlos set fastest time on the opening stage we were confident of going further ahead on Sisteron so it was particularly disappointing that we didn't get the chance,' said Pirelli competition director Paul Hembery.

Subaru driver Tommi Makinen, making his debut with the latest Pirelli PZero asphalt tyres, has been especially enthusiastic. 'I'm really happy with the Pirellis and I'm confident that, once I get used to the Subaru Impreza WRC a little more, I can go even faster on them than at present.'