Rally of Argentina

The World Rally Championship crosses the globe once more in search of gravel roads and a fresh technical challenge. This time the drivers are in Argentina where they will find special stages that are sometimes fast, sometimes slow with a surface that is sometimes hard and sometimes sandy. These varying conditions ensure that the fifth round of this year's competition is a true test of drivers' skills. The Cordoba-based event begins a gravel phase of the championship that will continue throughout the summer until the asphalt rounds of San Remo and Corsica in October, before a return to gravel for the final rounds in Australia and Great Britain.
Last year in Argentina, Pirelli scored its third gravel victory of the year and opened up a championship battle that remained unresolved until the final event of the season. This season, after excellent performances from the PZero range of tyres in the winter conditions of Monte Carlo and Sweden, the mud of Portugal and the asphalt of Spain, the Italian constructor heads for South America with the single objective - victory.

To this end Pirelli is sending the state of the art PZero range to the gravel rally and is ready to tackle any environmental conditions that may prevail. The K and KM pattern tyres have a wide variety of compounds available with some specific evolutions designed for the maximum performance and reliability on whatever surface is found.

Once again governed by rules demanding just two tread patterns, the Pirelli choice for Argentina should guarantee that drivers have the right options available for the changing degrees of hardness of the road surface. The PZero tyre range has won both of the past two Argentina rallies through the Subarus of Juha Kankkunen (1999) and Richard Burns (2000). However, Ford drivers Carlos Sainz (winner with Toyota-Pirelli in 1991) and Colin McRae are also well aware of the PZero tyres' characteristics from their days with Subaru.

EVER CHANGING GRAVEL
Around 2000 tyres in two tread patterns (K and KM), both with evolutions specifically designed for the harder surfaces of leg three and the softer, sandy surfaces of legs one and two, comprise the PZero range of tyres present in Argentina. All are equipped with Pirelli's EMI anti-deflation system.

For hard or rocky surfaces

For smooth, damp or sandy surfaces

NOTE: The higher the compound number, the softer the tyre.

The Pirelli Team for Argentina

Seguono altre vetture di team non stabilmente impegnati nel Mondiale

Our drivers said...

COLIN McRAE
I'm absolutely sure that Pirelli has the right tyres for this event. It's winter in Argentina so it will be cold and possibly wet so the narrow KM pattern should be ideal and we've got the K-pattern for the faster stages. Our biggest problem is that our bad luck at the start of the year means we'll be seeded down the order. We won't have the ideal road surface but we'll just have to live with that for at least a couple of events and hope to be better placed for Acropolis and Safari.
CARLOS SAINZ
We saw last year how competitive the Pirelli tyres were on this event, especially in the wet, and so everyone at Ford should be very optimistic about our chances. Argentina is a long way from Spain but as everyone speaks Spanish it always feels like a 'home' rally for me! I enjoy the event very much and I am going there looking for nothing less than victory.
RICHARD BURNS
I won here last year and Subaru-Pirelli has won the past two Argentina rallies so were as confident as we can be about the chances for making it three wins in a row. I need to start scoring points quickly and if Pirelli performs as well as usual in Argentina, this is the ideal place to do it.
PETTER SOLBERG
It's been a difficult start to the year for me so I'm going to Argentina to try and rediscover my form. I enjoy the event, I was sixth last year, and although the surface can be difficult at times, Pirelli has won the past two Argentina rallies and so they know exactly what is required.

Milano, 27 April 2001