Michelin

MICHELIN leads the way IN WRC

Congratulations to our partners Citroën, who with Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena have won the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship.

This year saw Michelin make a welcome return to the world class rallying after five years away from the sport. It turned out to be an emphatic return, securing both the FIA World Rally Championship and Intercontinental Rally Challenge titles with its partners.

In off road rallying, driving conditions can suddenly change at any stage of the race, so Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena both had to have confidence in their tyres’ ability to adapt. Michelin tyres, with their excellent grip, gave them that confidence, whatever the weather or terrain.

The World Rally Championship visited Coffs Harbour in September and the teams experienced the extremes of Australian weather.

After kicking off in heavy rain which made the stages particularly slippery and challenging, the remainder of the Rally Australia took place in fine, sunny conditions and on roads which were perfectly suited to the hardcompound MICHELIN LATITUDE Cross H1.

The win ended up going to FORD, with Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen steering the N°3 factory FIESTA RS WRC to a victory which promises an exciting finale to this year’s World Rally Championship. Indeed, the result takes the Finns to second place in the provisional standings, just 15 points behind the leader Sébastien Loeb. Mikko and Jarmo were joined on the podium by team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala/Mikka Anttila who finished 14.7 seconds adrift after losing the lead on SS25. Co-driven by Chris Patterson, Norway’s Petter Solberg profited from his experience of slippery conditions to finish third in his privately-entered DS3 WRC, 44.8s behind Hirvonen.

The Power Stage was won by seven-time world champion Sébastien Loeb (CITROEN DS3 WRC) who stays at the top of the provisional Drivers’ standings, despite a crash on the morning of Day 1 (Friday, September 9) that could have seen him lose his advantage in this year’s title chase. Fortunately for him, his team-mate Sébastien Ogier, who could have profited from the chance to ease into the championship lead, went on to clout a tree with his DS3 WRC later that day. After several hours work on their cars by the CITROEN team’s mechanics, the two Frenchmen were able to rejoin the rally on the Saturday morning.

Jacques Morelli, the manager of MICHELIN’s rally programmes, was pleased with the performance of the hard-compound MICHELIN LATITUDE Cross H1 which was the only tyre authorised for the Australian round of the 2011 WRC: “Friday’s rain made the stages extremely slippery. The treads of the LATITUDE CROSS tyres became filled with compact mud and were unable to demonstrate their full potential with regard to grip. Even so, the event was able to continue, despite the fact rallies organised near Coffs Harbour are apparently frequently cancelled in wet weather because of the region’s clay-based tracks. The sun shone from Saturday onwards, though, and our tyres were able to deliver their usual performance.”

“After analysing the tyres which came off the cars and listening to the drivers, it transpires that the hardcompound H1 option was the correct choice, except for Friday’s rain. We received positive feedback from the drivers, especially concerning the LATITUDE CROSS’s consistency. Wear rates where very low from start to finish and no problems were reported.”

The final round of the Championship was held in November and despite an accident on the public road between stages that ended his weekend early, Sébastian Loeb and Daniel Elena were crowned 2011 WRC Champion.

Tags: Coffs Harbour, Daniel Elena, Rally Australia, Sebastien Loeb