RALLY CROATIA, FRIDAY DECISIVE FOR THE FATE OF THE RACE. CAREFUL TYRE MANAGEMENT WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

Slippery, often debris-covered, and bumpy asphalts, high stress for the tyres, tyre management that requires special attention. These are the main characteristics of the Rally Croatia that emerge from the analyses carried out by Pirelli engineers at the end of reconnaissance.

 In particular, the rally's focus of attention is:

• The toughest day of the entire race is confirmed to be Friday, especially on the second passages due to the dirt that will tend to accumulate in the morning. In the eight special stages planned, the stress on the tyres will be very high, not only because of the overall length of the two stages, but also because of the type of asphalt, which is often bumpy, and the numerous jumps. The risk of punctures is quite high, due to the debris that cut after cut will be deposited on the road surface. Generally, good grip level
• The most critical special stages of the entire rally are 1-5 due to the deep cuts and narrow roadway
• On Saturday, the main characteristics of the special stages are the bumpy asphalt in several sections and the presence of jumps, combined with a road surface that is often dirty due to cuts. Particular attention must be paid to SS 12-16, which has stones on the asphalt.
• Sunday will be quieter, although the road surface promises to be slippery and the two tracks are very different: fast the first (SS 17-19) and characterized by narrow roads the second (SS 18-20)
• Moisture will play its part in tyre choice: although the surfaces will be mostly dry, more than 40% of the race sections have damp or even wet conditions  

Below are the day-by-day analysis tables

PIRELLI TYRES IN CROATIA
P Zero RA WRC: Pirelli's asphalt rally tyre is available in two compounds. For Croatia, the hard compound version (P Zero RA WRC HA) will be the prime, best suited to cope with the more abrasive dry road surfaces and longer stages, while the soft compound version (P Zero RA WRC SA) will be the option, to be preferred in the case of asphalts that are by their nature more slippery or made wet by rain and night frost. 

P Zero RA: this is the product line dedicated to Rally2 and Rally3 cars, and therefore used in both WRC2 and WRC3, as well as in the Junior WRC. The Rally 2 and Rally 3 products are different from each other in terms of sizes and compounds Here too there are hard compound versions (RA5A for Rally2 and RA5 for Rally3), which debuted last autumn in the Rally of Spain and in Croatia is the prime, and the soft compound version (RA7+B for Rally2 and RA7+ for Rally3). The P Zero RA tyres share many of the characteristics of the WRC tyres fitted on the top cars.

Cinturato RW: all four-wheel-drive categories now have a rain tyre suitable for wet or very wet asphalts. The new Cinturato RWB WRC is only available for Rally1 cars. Rally2 use RWB version of Cinturato, while Rally3 cars use the RW1C compound.