Michelin

Michelin Latitude Cross S1

A ‘soft’ tyre wins a hard event!

Rallying is a national passion in Argentina! Many tens of thousands of spectators lined this weekend’s stages to cheer on the drivers who faced an exhausting challenge due to the difficulty of the varied route which included sandy ground, stony trails and… pristine asphalt! The punishing test to which the 2011 Rally Argentina put the cars and drivers set the scene for the debut of the soft-compound version of the MICHELIN LATITUDE Cross S1.

CITROEN/MICHELIN’s seven-time World Champions Sébastien LOEB/Daniel ELENA won the 2011 Rally Argentina with a total time of 4h 3m 56.9s, despite taking a one-minute time penalty for late arrival at Friday’s lunchtime service halt. The consistent run of the FORD FIESTA RS WRC driver Mikko HIRVONEN (+2.4s) harvested second place, while Loeb’s team-mate Sébastien OGIER (+7.3s) had to settle for third place after rolling out of the lead four stages from home.

MICHELIN Competition’s Director Nick SHORROCK was extremely pleased with the performance of the MICHELIN LATITUDE Cross S1, although he did question the value of running mixed gravel/asphalt stages and the negative impact that could have had on the safety of the crews. “MICHELIN developed the LATITUDE Cross S1 for use on gravel. On that front, it rose to its mission perfectly here in Argentina where the teams benefited from a competitive balance between performance on soft ground and resistance to sharp stones,” he said. “On the dirt stages, which made up the vast majority of the route, the LATITUDE CROSS S1 gave evidence of its performance potential, while wear-rates were low, which is obviously good for driver safety.

“On the other hand, the inclusion of long portions of asphalt on SS4/7 and SS8/12 put our tyres through an ordeal for which they were not designed, and wear-rates consequently reached excessive levels in certain cases. MICHELIN, which places road safety as its most important priority, took the initiative of putting tyre change opportunities into place after SS8 and SS12. We trucked 100 wheels and tyres to each one, and that enabled the crews to complete the rest of Saturday’s loop on suitable tyres.”

Jacques MORELLI (Manager of MICHELIN’s rally programmes): “If it had rained, the low wear-rates recorded by our soft-compound tyres would have enabled the drivers to contest this event in total safety. Indeed, the possibility of unsettled weather is dialled into the design and development of our WRC tyres. Now that the balance between the outright performance potential and strength of the MICHELIN LATITUDE Cross range matches the demands of our partners, we can begin to fine-tune them by incorporating other factors, such as different driving styles, into future evolutions.”

The WRC’s next port-of-call is Greece (June 16-19, 2011) which is notorious for being the championship’s toughest rally on tyres.

MICHELIN LATITUDE Cross S1
The MICHELIN LATITUDE Cross S1 (17/65R15) was developed for predominantly sandy ground and low temperatures. It delivers a high-quality balance between performance, strength and durability and comes with a single type of tread pattern. MICHELIN had 1,000 tyres available for its partners in Argentina.

Tags: MICHELIN LATITUDE CROSS S1, Sebastien Loeb