Pirelli to defends its Championship lead at Brno

Milan, 24 June 2005 - Even though the 24 Hours of Le Mans was only five days ago, there is no respite in Pirelli's track racing activities, as the eve of the fifth round in the International FIA-GT Championship approaches. A month after the last race in the series at Imola, the Grand Touring category cars will be back in action in this competitive series at Brno in the Czech Republic, where Pirelli did well in 2004. Last year, Team Vitaphone's Saleen on Pirelli P Zero Racing won in the hands of Bartels-Alzen in an event convincingly dominated by their total superiority, to put it mildly. As already seen at Imola, Pirelli Competizioni has more than one good reason to be cautiously optimistic about the imminent Czech race. On the one hand, there is the certainty of using tyres that have always been competitive and have contributed much to the current situation of Pirelli drivers', constructors' and teams' dominance in all three categories of the FIA-GT Championship. On the other, there is confidence in the teams and crews who race on P Zero Racing as they prepare to compete in an event that will certainly be gruelling. "Starting the race with 100 kilos of ballast will not be easy", says Fabio Babini, who drives a Team Vitaphone Racing Maserati MC12 and currently leads the drivers' and teams' points tables. "But I still think we can defend our leadership, thanks to the notable reliability of the car and the optimum yield consistency provided by Pirelli tyres on every track. Anyway, the other Team Vitaphone Maserati produced exceptional lap times at Imola in both qualifying and the race even though it carried 80 kilos of ballast, so there will certainly be no lack of competitivity on the part of the MC12s". The truth is that almost all the adversaries of Babini and his MC12 will also have to compete while carrying dozens of kilos of ballast, so he will not be far off an ideal condition of equity. Commented Belgium's Bert Longin, one of the winners at Imola with the Pirelli-shod Corvette C5R, "The Maseratis will be among the favourites at Brno, because the flat corners of that circuit adapt well to the MC12. Anyway, with the performance of both our Corvette and the latest evolution of the P Zero Racing tyres, we can also do well next Sunday". Pierluigi De Cancellis, Pirelli Competizioni's Circuit Manager says that "the asphalt is very abrasive and the lay-out of the Czech track, with its "S' bends, hairpins and slow corners, makes the tyres' job difficult. At Brno, it is important to find the right compromise between set-up and motility - two basic requirements in order to have a chance of winning on that circuit. A track for which we have decided to use compounds that have been amply tried and tested, so that we can offer each team the most suitable version of our P Zero Racing".