Sebastien Ogier secured his second World Rally Championship
(WRC) win at the recent Rally Japan while riding on Pirelli's
soft-compound Scorpion tire.
"I'm very happy because this is my first time in Japan and I did
not expect to take the victory, so it's really amazing," says
Ogier, who races in a Citroen.
"As usual we had no problems with our Pirelli tires because they
are very strong and gave a good performance," he reports.
"Very quickly we found a good rhythm and confidence in
the car, which was perfect all rally. I was very happy with my
drives in Portugal, where I also won, and in Finland, but this
weekend was different because I had to be more strategic," notes
Ogier. "I didn't know the stages, so on the first two days I had
to be careful, but when they were new for every driver I had a
big push and it worked very well for me."
PAGE 2 "The wear rate of the tires was very low on Friday and we saw
a lot of tires coming back to service looking almost new, even
though the ground temperature was 33 degrees centigrade,"
recounts Matteo Braga, Pirelli's senior WRC tire
engineer.
"That's obviously a good thing because it means the performance
of the soft-compound tire stayed consistent. On Saturday there
were lots of sharp stones on the stages, which can easily cut
the tread, but there wasn't any significant damage caused to the
tires because of this and that is very satisfying," he
adds.
"Overall, this has been another very successful rally for
Pirelli and I am pleased to say that only 770 tires were
required by our 55 crews because the wear rate was so low with
no tire failures," says Braga. "Some privateer crews used 12
tires for the entire 303 competitive kilometers, while one
driver used just six tires."
Mikko Hirvonen, who had been in the thick of the lead battle
until a technical fault dropped him back on the final morning,
used just four tires over Sunday's eight stages after electing
not to use the spare tire, which the WRC's technical regulations
require him to carry, due to the consistent and durable nature
of the rubber, according to Braga.
"Despite the punishing stage conditions, Pirelli's
Scorpion tire, which uses a reinforced sidewall to counter the
threat of deflations, proved extremely resilient," he
continues.
"Even the damaged right-rear tire that Petter Solberg suffered
on stage four after clouting a bank was re-inflated by Pirelli's
engineers when it was returned to the service park in Sapporo,
owing to the fact that the loss of air was caused by a damaged
wheel rather than a puncture, although the incident caused the
2003 world champion very little time loss," says Braga.
PAGE 3Solberg, who captured the
first of Pirelli's four wins in Rally Japan back in 2004, took
second in his Citroen with Jari-Matti Latvala coming in
third.
Up next on the WRC schedule is the Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 Rallye de
France. The all-asphalt event, which is based in Strasbourg in
the Alsace region of the country, concludes with a stage in
Sebastien Loeb's home town of Haguenau, where victory for the
Citroen driver would make him world champion for a seventh
time.
For more information, visit www.us.pirelli.com.
