Gronholm Unsure about Tyre Form
Double World Champion Marcus Gronholm remains far from confident in the potential of his Peugeot/Pirelli combination, despite the wet conditions on this week's Rally of Turkey
The Pirelli tyre has been comfortably beaten by Michelin on the last three rounds of the championship, where the conditions have been hot and dry. The rain in Turkey was expected to offer some relief to the Italian tyre firm.
But Gronholm said: "For the tyres, we don't know. If it dries up, then we can see how the latest development from Pirelli is, but at the moment it is complete mud. All we can do for tyre choice is guess. As for the car, I am very happy with the reliability.
"Okay, we had a problem in Cyprus, but it was a strange thing, nothing we have had before. For the performance, the car is the same. I will do what I can. I will push to try and win."
Pirelli's Fiorenzo Brivio is hoping for dry conditions and the chance to show how the latest development to its XR tyre will bring it closer to the Michelin Z BTO, which was the tyre to beat in New Zealand, Sardinia and Cyprus.
"We have 80 per cent dry tyre and 20 per cent wet," said Brivio. "It would be nice to have it hot, because we want to see where we are compared to Michelin. Because of the retirements (of Marcus Gronholm and Petter Solberg - leading Pirelli runners) in Cyprus, we didn't get the chance to find out.
"For this rally we have focused on developing the compound as well as the construction."
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