Richard Burns drove his Subaru-Pirelli to the 2001
World Rally Drivers’ Championship after finishing 3rd on the Rally
GB that finished in Cardiff this afternoon. It is the 30-year old
Englishman’s first World Crown while it marks the 18th
World Crown for Pirelli, five of which have come from its
technical partnership with Subaru, started in 1994.

Three Pirelli drivers – including Ford-Pirelli’s Colin
McRae and Carlos Sainz – began this final round of the
World Championship with a chance of the Title. McRae crashed
out of the event while leading and Sainz was withdrawn from
fourth place, handing the Manufacturers’ Championship to
Peugeot. With Tommi Makinen (the only other possible
champion) retiring on the opening day, Burns has been able to
cruise to the title and he has not been called upon to show just
how fast he can drive in the slippery Welsh forests.

Pirelli Motorsport Director, Paul Hembery, said
today: ‘Naturally we are delighted to have helped Richard become
the first English World Rally Champion on his home event.
The fact that Pirelli started this rally with three possible
World Champions underlines the consistent performance
of the PZero tire range this season on all surfaces and in
all conditions.’

Attention now turns to the 2002 WRC season that starts in
less than eight weeks’ time with testing getting underway for both
Monte Carlo and Sweden immediately after this event.
Subaru-Pirelli’s line-up for the season will include
new-signing 4 times world champion Tommi Makinen along with
Petter Solberg, while Markko Martin moves from
Subaru to the Ford-Pirelli team to join Colin
McRae and Sainz.

Sunday November 25

WRC Manufacturers: 1.Peugeot p.106; 2. Ford 86; 3.
Mitsubishi 69; 4. Subaru 66; 5. Skoda 17; 6. Hyundai
17.

WRC Drivers: 1. Burns 44; 2. McRae 42; 3.
Makinen 41; 4. Gronholm 36; 5. Rovanpera 36; 6. Sainz
33.

The 18 Rally World Crowns For Pirelli

The 2 Fia Drivers’ Cups
1977Sandro MunariLancia Stratos

1978Markku AlenFiat 131 Abarth

The Group A World Title
1986Kenneth Eriksson;Volkswagen Golf GTI
16v

Cardiff, November 25, 2001

Milan, 10 October 2001 – Reports which have appeared in
certain newspapers to the effect that a major competitor is
interested in acquiring Pirelli’s entire tyre sector were commented
upon by the Company as follows.
The Tyre Sector is a strategic activity for the Group and its sale
is a totally unrealistic hypothesis.
Even the sale of the European Truck Tyres segment, communicated in
recent weeks as a possibility, will be pursued only if and when
particularly interesting opportunities arise.

Colin McRae drove his WRC Ford Focus to an outstanding victory at
the Acropolis Rally, thus giving Pirelli it’s 120th World Rally
Championship success. Thanks to their result, McRae and Ford lead
now the World Championship standings.
Pirelli won every stage of the event except the final one and
underlined the exceptional performance of the PZero gravel tyres
range by the fact that every one of the factory drivers from Ford
and Subaru took at least one Stage win during this gruelling rally.
Both the X and XR pattern tyres won Stages during the event.
Petter Solberg (Subaru-Pirelli) ensured a third consecutive 1-2
result (after the ones in Argentina and Cyprus) but there was
disappointment for both Carlos Sainz and Richard Burns who were
forced to retireduring Leg 3, denying Pirelli a more than possible
1-2-3-4 result.
Group N was, as usual, a Mitsubishi-Pirelli triumph with
Argentinian Gabriel Pozzo winner ahead of Gustavo Trelles and
Marcos Ligato.
The WRC now moves to Kenya and the challenge of repeating the
Pirelli 1-2-3 result of last year where Richard Burns won without a
single puncture.

Final Standings:
1. C. McRae (Ford-Pirelli),
4h19m01.9;
2. Solberg (Subaru-Pirelli) +49.0;
3. Rovanpera (Peugeot) +1m35.7;
4. Makinen (Mitsubishi) +2m15.3;
4. Delecour (Ford-Pirelli) +2m35.4;
6. Bugalski (Citroen) +4m00.2;
7. Schwarz (Skoda) +5m56.7;
8. Jean-Joseph (Peugeot) +7m27.1 ; . . .;
13. (e 1 di Gr.N) Pozzo (Mitsubishi-Pirelli)

World Champ. Standings (after 7 out of 14 events)
Drivers:
1. C. McRae e Makinen p.30;
3. Sainz 26;
4. Burns 15;
5. Rovanpera 14;
6. Delecour 11;
7. Auriol 10;
8. Solberg 9;
9. Loix 7;
10. Radstrom 6; . . .
Manufacturers:
1. Ford-Pirelli P.60;
2. Mitsubishi 53;
3. Subaru-Pirelli 28;
4. Peugeot 20;
5. Skoda 11;
6. Hyundai 10

Next Event: Safari Rally (Kenya, all gravel) 20-22 July