Sebastien Loeb and Petter Solberg have given Pirelli's hard Scorpion tyres full marks following last weekend's Acropolis Rally, one of the most demanding events in the World Rally Championship.
Loeb took his fifth win of the season in Greece on Sunday, a result that put him back in the lead in the race for the 2008 drivers' title. Despite losing time with a puncture on day two, which briefly dropped him behind his Citroen team-mate, Dani Sordo, the Frenchman was happy with the way his Pirellis performed.
"We drove with the idea of preserving the car and the tyres on an incredibly rough surface," said Loeb. "The Pirelli Scorpion tyres were able to resist stages that were truly a massacre.
"The overall conclusion then is very positive - particularly considering that these tyres do not have anti-deflation mousse and that they have to adapt themselves to a very wide range of different surfaces."
Petter Solberg, who finished second in the new Impreza, concurred that they went well considering they can no longer make extra cuts nor take advantage of anti-deflation mousse, which has been outlawed this year.
"On what is probably the roughest event of the entire year the Pirelli tyres backed us up well," he added. "And looking at the type of surfaces we had to deal with this year [in Greece], I would say that the hard compound Scorpion tyres coped more than well with the conditions."
Citroen boss Olivier Quesnel however, was not completely satisfied and was not amused with the problems that cost his number two driver Dani Sordo to lose so much time on Saturday afternoon - dropping the Spaniard from first to seventh and costing the team a 1-2 finish.
"Our instructions and the best efforts of our crews to manage their tyres didn't suffice," added Quesnel. "This raises the question of the suitability of having just one type of tyre for such a specific and punishing event as the Acropolis."
Pirelli boss Mario Isola meanwhile conceded that while the second leg was tough, tyre problems weren't the only issues. He also pointed out that while a number of drivers' did have punctures, it was actually less of a problem than in previous years when mousse was standard.
