Beginning in 2011, Pirelli has a three-year tire supply agreement with the Formula One, GP2 and GP3 circuits.
A native of Poland, the d'Alpi Orientali win was the 25-year-old Kubica's first class victory in rallying, achieved over the course of a 14-stage, three-day event covering more than 103 competitive miles.
His car was running on Pirelli's P Zero asphalt tires, which proved to be both fast and reliable, according to Kubica."I just came here to have fun really," says Kubica, who placed 13th overall. "I have to be careful not to risk too much, as Formula One is my real job. But I love the challenge of adapting to rallying."
The Rally d'Alpi Orientali was held in difficult mixed weather conditions in the northeast of Italy, and it proved to be a successful weekend for other Pirelli drivers: Paolo Andreucci won the rally overall in a Peugeot 207 S2000, Group N4 was clinched by Andrea Perego in a Mitsubishi and Pierre Campana was the Group R3 victor in another Renault Clio.
"It's great that we've got our Formula One campaign off to such a successful early start by taking this class win with Robert Kubica," says Pirelli motorsports director Paul Hembery.
"The performance of our P Zero tires in difficult conditions enabled a driver who is still finding his feet in rallying to take this very satisfying result," adds Hembery, "and we look forward once again to making our presence felt strongly in both racing and rallying in the future."
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