RALLY CHILE, SOFT-COMPOUND SCORPIONS RETURN PRIME

The course winds through forests and coastline and features often slippery and wet surfaces.

The winding but fast roads require very technical driving.

Terenzio Testoni of Pirelli: "I expect a hard-fought race in which the pitfalls will be numerous."

The World Rally Championship leaves Europe again, for the third time this year, to face the shores of the South Pacific. The scene of the eleventh stage of the WRC season will be the forests and coastal roads of the Bio Bio region around Concepciòn, which remains cool and rather humid at this time of year, despite the onset of the austral spring. For the Chilean rally this is the second time in the world championship, following the 2019 edition, won by Ott Tanak in a Toyota Yaris.   

Despite the precedent set four years ago, the track on southern Chile's gravel roads remains quite unfamiliar for most of the World Championship drivers, who will have to pay utmost attention in reconnaissance to spot the major pitfalls of the course, which runs a total of 1233.09 kilometers of which 321.06 competitive for 16 special stages.   

Basically, the more than 50 crews entered in the eighth gravel race of the season know they can expect: 

• Winding but fast roads, requiring very technical driving
• Wet, especially in the early morning hours, and fairly soft surfaces that tend to get dirty passage after passage

 Given the conditions, Pirelli's choice fell on the soft-compound Scorpion SA gravel tires as the prime, while the hard-compound Scorpion HAs will be the option.  

PIRELLI QUOTE
Terenzio Testoni, Rally activity manager: "Considering that the World Championship is still open, I expect a very hard-fought rally, spectacular and not easy from a technical point of view, as indeed every race on the calendar. The road surface of the Bio Bio region is the terrain of choice for our most used tires throughout the season, namely the soft-compound Scorpions, which are able to ensure grip in all conditions, as they also proved in the muddy opening stages of the last Rally of Greece."

PIRELLI TIRES IN CHILE 
The tires available in the various categories for this rally are:   

Scorpion KX WRC, the Pirelli gravel tire developed for the top category is available for Rally1 cars in two compounds, both in evolution 2022, which features reinforced structures and an optimized design. The first soft-compound Scorpion SA are designed to provide optimum grip even on surfaces with less grip. The hard-compound HA option offers greater resistance to the most abrasive surfaces and increased durability.   

The regulations call for an allocation of 24 and 8 tires respectively for the prime and option, to which four must be added for the shakedown, in the compound of the crew's choice.   

Scorpion K: The dirt tires for WRC2 and WRC3 are also available in hard and soft compounds and share many of the same characteristics as the KX. In Chile, Rally2 cars will use K6B soft compound and K4B hard compound, while Rally3 cars will use K6A soft compound and K4A hard compound.   

For these car categories, the allocations are 22 and 8 tires for prime and option respectively, to which a shakedown set should be added.