The rally activity manager of Pirelli Motorsport, Terenzio Testoni, says that the Italian brand has already found the causes of tyre delaminations at Rally Sweden last weekend and believes that it was an intense event in terms of conditions.
Craig Breen was the first victim of the tyre delaminations as he suffered from a puncture in Stage 13 resulting in losing his lead and dropping behind Ott Tanak on the overall classification. His teammate, Esapekka Lappi, completed the same stage with a seven-minute delay as his i20N was stuck on the snow after a spin on the last corner of SS13. According to EP, his spin was caused by a front right puncture which had a huge impact to his result in Sweden as he was in third place until this incident. On the other hand, Ott Tanak's front left tyre was delaminated in Stage 14, but he was lucky as this incident happened near the end of the stage meaning that he did not lose so much time.
"It was an intense weekend in which we raced to the limit, and even beyond, in every respect", Testoni said.
"On Saturday afternoon the road surface conditions were certainly beyond the limit, which were really difficult and very different from what can be expected in a winter race: loose ice, deep ruts and gravel sections put the tyres under stress and put the drivers to the test.
"To make the conditions even more extreme was the combination of very uneven ground and high speeds.
"In addition, in the understandable and normal quest for performance by the teams, the settings of the cars and the parameters of the tyres themselves were also pushed to the limit.
"However, a distinction must be made between the incidents that occurred.
"The Hyundai cars suffered delaminations in SS13.
"Together with the team, with whom there is a historical and very productive collaboration, we identified the problem and found solutions.
"Tänak , on the other hand, did not suffer a delamination in SS14, but a puncture with a slow air leak, which also resulted in damage to the tyre structure after kilometres of flat driving.
"In the rest of the weekend, when the conditions were properly winter, we saw great performances, with very high speed peaks and a tight and interesting race".
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