PIRELLI  FOURNISSEUR OFFICIEL DES PNEUMATIQUES DE FORMULE 1 -2011 PROPOSE UNE EXPERIENCE UNIQUE SUR CIRCUIT AUX PASSIONNES AUTOMOBILES

 

Le retour de Pirelli au sommet de la compétition automobile sur la discipline la plus prestigieuse qu’est la Formule 1, sa présence en GP2 et GP3 comme en WRC, en fait un acteur incontournable des sports mécaniques garant d’une technologie de pointe au service des sensations automobiles.

 Dans le cadre des P Zero™ Experience, événement haut de gamme initié en mai 2010 par Pirelli en partenariat avec Oreca, permettant aux particuliers possesseurs de GT d’exploiter leur véhicule lors d’une journée de pilotage sur circuit, Pirelli organise deux dernières sessions à la rentrée :

 -  Vendredi 17 septembre au circuit F1 de Nevers Magny-cours ou

-  Dimanche 24 Octobre au circuit Paul-Ricard HTTT,      

 Avec les P Zero™ Experience, Pirelli met son savoir-faire et son expérience en compétition au service de ses clients. Les images de la première session des PZero Expérience sur le Circuit Paul-Ricard HTTT sont disponibles sur  www.pirelli.fr

 Les P Zero™ Experience c’est :

 - 3h de roulage  en toute liberté

-  Essais dynamiques Pirelli sur une flotte de GT de prestige

-  Du coaching avec conseils personnalisés

Mais aussi,

-  Possibilité de réserver ses pneumatiques Pirelli à l’inscription

-  Tarif préférentiel pour les clients Pirelli, pour le 17 septembre : 295€ TTC (395€ TTC pour les autres marques de pneus)*

 Les partenaires de Pirelli pour l’événement proposeront des animations exclusives :

Parrot, leader mondial des périphériques sans fil pour téléphones mobiles, participera à la seconde édition des PZERO Expérience et présentera l’AR.Drone, son quadricoptère high-tech hors norme pour les jeux vidéos et pilotable en Wi-Fi. L’ensemble de la gamme Parrot de systèmes mains-libres et musicaux pour la voiture ainsi que  la gamme Parrot by de produits multimédia haut de gamme seront également présentés aux participants.

  PlayStation, acteur majeur de l’industrie du jeu vidéo, s’associe à Pirelli afin de faire partager via le jeu Gran Turismo,  référence des jeux de simulation de course automobile, toutes les sensations des pilotes. La présence de simulateurs PlayStation 3 sur les événements P Zero Experience permettra aux participants de s’essayer à la course virtuelle sur Gran Turismo 5 et d’y vivre les mêmes sensations que sur piste.

  Relais & Châteaux, collection exclusive de 481 des meilleurs hôtels de charme et restaurants gastronomiques présents dans plus de 58 pays. La signature de Relais & Châteaux est le reflet de cette ambition : ”Partout dans   le monde, unique au monde.” A l’occasion de ces journées P Zero Experience, contactez la Centrale de  Réservations Relais & Châteaux au 0 825 825 180** pour réserver votre séjour ”Découverte & Saveurs” à partir de 233€*** par personne comprenant le dîner (boissons incluses), une nuit en chambre double classique ou supérieure, avec le petit déjeuner. 

 * Modalités et Conditions de l’offre et inscriptions sur www.pirelli.fr  

**0.15€/min (depuis la France)

*** Offre soumise à conditions et valable dans les établissements participants pour toute réservation effectuée via la Centrale de Réservations téléphonique Relais & Châteaux.  Prix sur la base d’une chambre double occupée par 2 personnes. 

 Informations et réservations : au 04 94 88 57 31 et sur www.pirelli.fr ou directement sur www.pzeroexperience.fr

 Contact Pirelli France :     

Pirelli France                       Astrid SERGEANT                              01 49 89 77 05 / 06 70 88 42 69

Image7                                 Roxane PLANAS                                 01 53 70 74 89

The fourth round of the inaugural GP3 series – equipped exclusively by Italian tyre firm Pirelli – took place at Silverstone over the weekend, on the British circuit’s revised track layout for the first time.

The GP3 series is one of the first international formulae to race on the latest track configuration, which features seven new corners. As a result, both the lap length and average speed have been increased.

Pirelli’s hard compound tyres made their debut on the track this year, after the Italian firm used medium compound rubber at the first two GP3 rounds in Barcelona and Istanbul, followed by the soft compound at Valencia.

 The new hard compound Pirelli PZero 13-inch tyre proved to be both fast and reliable at Silverstone despite a wide variety of weather conditions that accurately reflected the vagaries of the British climate.

Saturday’s race was held in dry and warm conditions, with temperatures in the region of 30 degrees centigrade. Esteban Gutierrez dominated the feature race by taking pole position for the second consecutive time and sealing his third win of the season by 3.6 seconds from Rio Haryanto and Nico Muller.

 On Sunday the weather was cloudy and much cooler with temperatures of about 18 degrees centigrade, increasing the time it took to get the hard compound Pirelli tyres up to ideal operating temperature. Daniel Morad took his first GP3 victory, while the crowds enjoyed a huge battle between Mirko Bortolotti and Gutierrez for the remaining podium places. The pair fought hard but fairly, with their Pirelli tyres allowing them both to push to the very limit.

Pirelli’s Racing Manager Mario Isola commented: “We’re very pleased with the debut of our hard compound PZero GP3 tyre at Silverstone, particularly because it performed consistently within a very wide range of conditions. We were privileged to witness some of the best racing we have seen all year, with the battle between Mirko and Esteban forming a special highlight. Interestingly there was a lot of carbon fibre debris on the track this year, which meant that we saw a number of tyres that had suffered deep cuts to the tread pattern. Despite this, the tyres performed perfectly: underlining the reliability as well as the performance of our PZero rubber.”

 At the halfway point of the season Gutierrez leads the championship with 51 points while his ART team mate Alexander Rossi is back up to second on 25 points. The ART squad also leads the teams’ championship.

 The next two races of the eight-round GP3 series take place at the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim from July 24-25. Pirelli was recently confirmed as the exclusive tyre supplier to Formula One next year, along with GP2 and GP3. In this way, future generations of drivers will benefit from a Pirelli-backed ladder of talent designed to take them all the way to the very top of the sport.

For further information on Pirelli, please contact Anthony Peacock on anthony@mediatica.co.uk

or +44 (0) 7765 896 930.

For GP3 series information: www.gp3series.com Sunday 11 July 2010

Sunday 11 July 2010

Daniel Morad took his first GP3 victory with Pirelli at Silverstone

Ski runs are classified according to their level of difficulty with green runs set aside for beginners and black courses for the exclusive use of expert skiers. Borovets, Bulgaria’s oldest ski resort, has 19 ski runs including the black-graded Yastrebets descent, which measures 2300 metres in length and is arguably the town’s toughest course for those hoping to emulate Carlo Janka, the current overall skiing World Cup champion.

Borovets is also home to another tough course, the 354.10-kilometre route of Rally Bulgaria, round seven of the 2010 World Rally Championship, of which Pirelli is the exclusive tyre supplier under a three-year agreement with the FIA, motorsport’s world governing body.

Although Borovets is located high up in the Rila mountains, being early July, it’s not surprising to learn that the rally used Tarmac-only runs rather than snow-coated grassy slopes. However, its lofty location means the weather can be unpredictable. During the four-day event, crews experienced bright sunshine, heavy clouds and rain, while ambient temperature variations ranged from eight degrees centigrade to 30-plus at the rally’s permanent service park in Dolna Banya.

It was the threat of unpredictable weather that made the availability of the soft compound Pirelli PZero tyre essential for the competing crews. On gravel events, WRC regulations restrict drivers to a pre-determined compound of Pirelli’s Scorpion tyre. On asphalt events, they can choose between the hard (for dry conditions) or soft (for wet conditions) compound PZero, albeit with a restriction of 40 covers in total. In Bulgaria, they had an allocation of 34 hard compound tyres and 24 soft compound tyres, eight more than usual, following reports of possible thunderstorms.

While the event was held in largely dry conditions, overnight showers and precipitation on Saturday morning’s opening brace of stages forced competitors to choose between the hard and soft compound tyre and dramatically increased the challenge due to the inconsistent stage surfaces.

Both types of compound use an identical tread pattern, designed to provide maximum contact with the road, but the soft version is designed to provide more grip and stability when conditions are cold and damp, while the hard provides optimum performance when the weather is warm and the road surface dry.

Sebastien Loeb, who won the rally to extend his lead of the world championship to 51 points, opted for the soft compound PZero tyre for all of Saturday’s six stages to counter the threat of showers. While it proved a wise move by the factory Citroen C4 driver on Saturday morning, it was less inspired in the afternoon when it remained dry.

“We expected some rain so it was a safety decision because when you have water on the road the soft compound tyre is much better,” said Loeb. “If it’s dry we knew it would not be the best choice but we did not lose too much time because the grip under braking was still good when we used the soft compound tyre on a dry surface, although we could not be so quick through the corners because we have less lateral grip and you have to find a different rhythm for that.”

Sebastien Loeb took his 22nd WRC win on Pirelli tyres in Bulgaria

Loeb’s victory was his 58th at world championship level, the 22nd time he had triumphed in the WRC using Pirelli tyres and his seventh win on asphalt with Pirelli covers.

In the past, Pirelli engineers would have developed a tyre specifically for competition and for different levels of rainfall. But because the FIA specified that the asphalt tyres had to conform to everyday road use regulations, the PZero WRC cover is virtually identical to the tyres available for members of the public, albeit with even stronger sidewalls to combat the threat of punctures. Nevertheless, Loeb was quick to praise the performance of his Pirelli PZero tyres.

“It’s been the perfect rally for me and very good for the championship,” said Loeb. “I am happy with the performance of the tyres and I was surprised that the soft was as good as it was in dry conditions when, for sure, it was not the best choice.”

Rally Bulgaria also marked the debut of Pirelli’s new RX tyre for use by Junior World Rally Championship competitors in place of the old RS design. Using the same technology incorporated into the 18-inch RX tyre, Pirelli has produced 17- and 16-inch versions to give the competitors in the young-driver class more precision, reaction, durability and consistency, particularly on some of the longer stages (the Batak Lake stage run twice on day one measured 31.77 kilometres in length) on the rally route.

Thierry Neuville, who claimed his maiden win in the JWRC class in a Citroen C2 S1600, said: “The tyre was working very well. You had a very good feeling and there is not much difference between how the tyre looked at the start and finish of the long stages. It’s very good work by Pirelli.”

Matteo Braga, Pirelli’s senior WRC tyre engineer, concluded: “We are very satisfied with how this rally has gone for us. It is a new rally and the first round of the WRC on Tarmac this season so there was increased expectation. The teams are now clear about how the soft and hard tyres perform in different conditions and this is very important. Also, Petter Solberg used the same set of tyres on Friday’s stages, which covered 120 kilometres, and this shows the durability of the tyre is very good. We’ve seen no tyre damage or punctures although there were some junior drivers who had problems by cutting corners and hitting rocks, which broke rims rather than the tyre.”

A table detailing driver tyre compound choice on Rally Bulgaria is attached.

The World Rally Championship resumes in Finland from July 29-31.

ENDS
Borovets, July 11, 2010

On-event media contact: Richard Rodgers on +44 7833 470541 or richard@mediatica.co.uk

Thierry Neuville gave Pirelli’s RX tyre a maiden JWRC victory