Positive outcome for Pirelli at Le Mans after a highly selective 2005 "24 Hours"

Milan, 19 June 2005 - The 73rd 24 Hours of Le Mans once again proved itself to be a gruelling marathon par excellence in front of 230,000 spectators over the last two days. Fewer than half the cars that started the race were able to finish; further proof of how selective is the French classic. Competing with teams entered for the Grand Touring (GT1 and GT2) and LMP2 Prototype class, Pirelli Competizioni returned a positive result, despite technical problems stopped almost all the cars on Pirelli P Zero Racing tyres. In particular, the breakage of a steering component was the reason for the retirement of the Ferrari 550 Maranello entered by BMS-Scuderia Italia for the reigning FIA-GT Champion Fabrizio Gollin, who competed with Pescatori-Ramos. Their sister car, crewed by Seiler-Bartyan-Malucelli went off and out of the race after five hours. Before he stopped, Gollin was making up ground on the Corvette C6R, winner of GT1. As the Veneto driver explained, "The choice of tyres made with the Pirelli technicians was enabling us to keep pace well, taking into account that we were competing in a race as long as it was selective and that one of the major problems was wreckage on the track, caused by the many accidents that took place in the early stages. At least we were able to gain experience in a unique race like Le Mans, which will certainly be useful for the future". Mechanical breakdowns accounted for the Bouvet-Boulay-Julien's WR-Peugeot prototype and the two Panoz Elans, which have been so effective to date in the American Le Mans Series. Car number 77, driven by Auberlen-Liddel-Maxwell, retired a few hours after the start, while the Franchitti-Sellers-Bourdais Panoz fought a long battle against numerous adversaries before retiring at the half way mark. Engine failure knocked out the Ferrari 575 GTC of Team JMB (Matthews-de Fournoux-Daoudi) and the Ecurie Ecosse Ferrari 360 GTC of Kinch-Reid-Kirkaldy, which has done so well in the British GT championship, retired after an accident. Pirelli Competizioni's most successful car at the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Courage-Judd of Kruse Motorsport driven by Mitchell-Bennett-Mullen, fought long and hard for a top place in the LMP2 category, before coming to a halt with mechanical problems a few hours before the finish. Pierluigi De Cancellis, Circuit Manager of Pirelli Competizioni, summed up the event by saying, "The Pirelli P Zeros produced consistency of yield and optimum performance in both qualifying and the race. Certainly, misfortune plagued some of our teams, like Panoz Motor Sports and BMS-Scuderia Italia, but experiences gathered during this important endurance race will be extremely useful for the development of P Zero Racing tyres".