07
April
2015
|
10:21
Europe/Amsterdam

Speed and performance for Pirelli’s GT tyres at Nogaro

Pirelli’s GT tyres, designed for the race versions of supercars that Pirelli supplies with original equipment, demonstrated the same strength and performance that characterises Pirelli’s Ultra High Performance road car product, at the opening round of the Blancpain Sprint Series in France.

Team Brasil triumphed in Nogaro on Easter Monday

The Blancpain Sprint Series puts some of the world’s most prestigious sports cars together over a series of short, sharp races throughout the year, underlining their sporting heritage and ultimate performance. These cars come in a variety of different drivetrain and engine configurations, yet the Pirelli tyres exclusively supplied to the series are designed to work equally well on all of them, leading to close and exciting racing. The traditional Easter weekend races at Nogaro in France, with the final hour-long race held on Easter Monday, presented a significant technical challenge, thanks to a wide variety of medium-speed corners that required a very precise racing line, and therefore the best possible roadholding and grip. The P Zero tyres for the Blancpain Sprint Series are designed using Formula One technology and modelling processes, which eventually filter down to road cars. This technology transfer is also reciprocal in the Blancpain series, meaning that a lot of information from the road product is used in creating the race tyre. This underlines a two-way technology symbiosis linking competition to the road, which is prevalent in all of Pirelli’s products. Sunday’s qualification race was won by the Audi of Stephane Richelmi and Stephane Ortelli, while the main race on Monday was clinched by BMW factory drivers Dirk Muller and Maxime Martin, on loan to Team Brasil (whose regular drivers were competing in the Brazilian Stock Car Championship over the weekend, which is also supplied exclusively by Pirelli).

Pirelli is exclusive supplier to the Blancpain GT Series

Pirelli’s senior tyre engineer Matteo Braga, who was on hand to advise all the teams at Nogaro, said: “Our GT tyres have proven to work extremely well in a very wide range of conditions, on an even wider range of machinery. For the first time, for example, we saw Bentley taking part in a sprint race and with the help of our tyres, the car performed extremely strongly to challenge for the podium. As usual, there was another very close fight between Audi and BMW at the front: again, two contrasting types of car. The lap times were faster than last year, also because we had dry conditions throughout the weekend. This enabled drivers to look for the ultimate in performance, which we were able to assist in delivering, just as we do with our tyres for the road.” The next round of the Blancpain Sprint Series takes place at another iconic venue: Brands Hatch in England from May 9-10. Before then, Pirelli will also supply the opening round of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Monza this weekend from April 11-12.

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For further information about Pirelli please contact Anthony Peacock on +44 7765 896 930 or anthony@mediaticaworld.com