MRF at ERC 2020

R A L L Y

EUROPEAN RC

Mission successful for Team MRF Tyres at ERC

Breen-Nagle take fourth after a great fight; Lindholm-Korhonen finish 5th in Junior ERC1

It is 'Mission Positive' for Team MRF Tyres on the

Rally di Roma Capitale, the opening round of the 2020 European Rally Championship.

The ‘development tarmac tyres’ have seen competition for the first time and Team MRF Tyres have competed at the toplevel of tarmac rallying.

Team MRF Tyres drivers, Craig Breen and Paul Nagle led the MRF Tyres charge in the Hyundai i20 R5. Breen came into the day in fifth and was involved in a huge battle for fourth position with Simone Tempestini and co-driver Sergiu Itu with the pair swapping positions through the day.

Breen had started the final loop in fifth place but immediately moved to fourth. He consolidated the gap on the second last stage, building 4.5 second gap before the final stage.

In the end, Breen controlled the pace to take fourth place by 1.3 seconds to Tempestini.

For Emil Lindholm and codriver Mikael Korhonen in the Skoda Fabia evo2 R5, it was all about consolidation and improving the cars across each of the loops.

The Skoda duo continued to refine their setup throughout the day with the three passes over each stage giving the team a great opportunity to collect data for the future development of the tyre.

In the overall classification, the pair took a top-10 finish, controlling their position throughout the rally. Additionally, the pair are entered in the ERC1 competition for junior drivers. In this category, he took fifth position, a great start to his campaign.

The 7.25-km Stage 10, the- Rocca di Cave, provided incredible moments for Team MRF Tyres as both drivers posted the exact same time. Both drivers posted a time of 5:12.2, just 7.5 seconds off the stage win.

The crews faced a total distance of 197km competitive action and with 44 R5 cars in the field, it was always going to be a tough rally.

The day was split into three loops of three stages, with 100.8km of total competitive kilometres. The weather was warm and the stages were fast and wide.

It provided the ideal conditions for the tyres development for Team MRF Tyres with both drivers taking the opportunity to test different elements of the tyres in order to gain important data for future development.

It was a successful rally for Team MRF Tyres. In the first tarmac rally for the tyre, it was important to reach the end and gain data and provide some insight on the competitiveness of the tyre.

With both cars reaching the end of the rally, it was a success. To be so competitive, taking a topfive position and setting top two stage times, the Rally di Roma Capitale proved to be a positive for the team.

We gave it pretty much everything we had. We made gradual improvements over the weekend to learn how to get the best out of the tyre. To nish fourth is great and an absolute credit to the team. To think that this tyre barely existed a few weeks ago and to come out and be so competitive is a credit to the team. We gained a lot of valuable data on this rally. I really enjoyed it. It has been a pleasure from start to nish. Let's bring on the next one. Pico just dominated everything and reminds me of home. I would love to go do that stage again!

-Craig Breen and Paul Nagle