When Sebastien Loeb won Rallye Deutschland for a seventh time in 2008 he equalled Marcus Gronholm’s record for the most wins on a world championship qualifier.

With the Trier-based rally not running in 2009, organisers used the intervening 12 months to make a few tweaks to the event itinerary by adding a new stage and increasing the competitive distance by more than 50 kilometres.

But while the event format has changed, there was a distinctly familiar face standing at the top step of the podium on Sunday afternoon after Loeb swept to his eighth victory on the punishing asphalt roads through Germany’s Mosel and Saarland regions to add another record to his impressive list of achievements.

Driving a Citroen C4 World Rally Car on Pirelli’s PZero tyre, the six-time world champion was fastest on nine of the event’s 19 special stages, which covered a total distance of 407.31 competitive kilometres, making it the longest round of the WRC so far this season. His win, alongside co-driver Daniel Elena, was his 59th in the world championship.

After beating Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo by 51.3 seconds in the final classification, Loeb said: “It’s a good win for me and I’m really pleased but I have to say this was not my best victory in Germany. The weather was dry from the start so the conditions were not as difficult as they have been in the past. That meant there was less pressure on me and less satisfaction to have won. But it was still not easy because this is always a difficult rally with lots of surface changes. However, I had no problems with my tyres and the wear rate was good, even on the [48.00-kilometre Panzeplatte] stage.”

As well as remaining dry, baking hot sunshine coated the rally route throughout the weekend with ambient temperatures peaking at 31 degrees centigrade and the ground temperature rising to 40 degrees centigrade on Saturday afternoon.

Matteo Braga, Pirelli’s senior WRC tyre engineer, was delighted with how the Italian company’s PZero tyres had performed during the three gruelling days of competition.

“It has been another successful rally for Pirelli,” said Braga. “We have seen a few cars come back to service with broken wheel rims, caused by hitting kerbs or stones, but with the tyre still inflated or not damaged. This is very good because it proves the reinforced side walls that feature on the Pirelli PZero tyres work really well and do their job. In fact there have only been three punctures where the tyre has been damaged, which is very impressive because this is a long rally with many surface changes.”

Pirelli made available its hard and soft compound PZero tyre for Rallye Deutschland. The soft compound version is designed for cool and wet conditions, while the hard compound is designed for hot, dry weather.

Mario Isola, Pirelli’s Rally Manager, explained: “In the morning stages most drivers opted for the soft compound tyre because it provided better grip but in the heat of Saturday afternoon some drivers, including Sebastien Loeb, chose the soft compound tyre, which can work when the surface is less abrasive and the corners are not so long. It was an experiment by him but we found that while there was some degradation, it did not cause a performance disadvantage. This is very satisfying because it showed the performance of this compound can be good in hot conditions.”

As well as supplying tyres to the main WRC field as part of a three-year agreement with the FIA, the governing body of world motorsport, Pirelli’s PZero tyres are used as standard by competitors in the Super 2000 World Rally Championship, which was fought out between P-G Andersson, Martin Prokop and Patrik Sandell. After three days of close competition, Sandell prevailed by 4.7s.

The Production Car World Rally Championship crews also use Pirelli PZero tyres as standard. Armindo Araujo, the reigning class champion, took the honours in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X ahead of Pirelli Star Driver Hayden Paddon, who impressed at the wheel of a similar car.

A joint initiative between Pirelli and the FIA, the Pirelli Star Driver programme gives the opportunity for five promising young talents, Nick Georgiou, Peter Horsey, Paddon, Alex Raschi and Ott Tanak, to contest six rounds of the World Rally Championship in identical Pirelli-backed Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Xs. While Paddon starred, his team-mates were not as fortunate as they continued their WRC initiation.

Hans Weijs Jr took victory in the Junior World Rally Championship category in his Citroën C2 Super 16000 using Pirelli’s RX tyre, which was used by crews in the young driver class for the first time on Rally Bulgaria in early July.

The World Rally Championship resumes on the gravel-based Rally Japan from September 8-12. Pirelli will provide its Scorpion tyre in soft compound only to take into account the cold and damp conditions that characterise the Sapporo event.

Pirelli took the first step of its return to the FIA Formula One World Championship when Nick Heidfeld completed a two-day test at the wheel of a Toyota TF109 yesterday (Wednesday August 18).

Heidfeld, Pirelli’s newly-appointed Formula One test driver, sampled prototype versions of Pirelli’s PZero Formula One tyre, which will be used by all Formula One teams from 2011 onwards under a three-year agreement with the FIA, world motorsport’s governing body.

The objective of the test, which was held in largely dry and sunny conditions at the Mugello circuit in Italy, was to begin the process of determining the front and rear tyre profile and construction that will be used as the basis of the new Pirelli PZero Formula One tyre.

Pirelli’s Motorsport Director, Paul Hembery, explained: “This was the first step of our return to Formula One and we are very satisfied with how the tyres performed and the information we were able to collect. We concentrated on finalising the profile and the construction of the front and rear tyres, which is a process that we will continue over the next few tests that we carry out.

“Mugello has quite an abrasive surface with long and medium-high-speed corners as well as hairpins and quick changes of direction so it is quite a good proving ground. We are on target and we come away from this test with lots of data to analyse, which is exactly the situation we hoped to be in.”

Pirelli’s testing programme began less than two months since its agreement as the sole tyre supplier to the Formula One World Championship was finalised, a feat Hembery was quick to acknowledge.

“A lot of people have made a big commitment to get to where we are today in a very short period of time and the effort really has been incredible,” said Hembery. “The Toyota team has also been very professional and provided a good, reliable car and we are all very happy to begin our relationship with Nick Heidfeld who gave us a lot of good feedback and suggestions.”

Pirelli will continue its Formula One tyre development programme later this month.

Pirelli has begun its first Formula One tyre development test with German driver Nick Heidfeld, who is to be Pirelli’s official test driver as the Italian firm prepares for its return to Formula One for the first time in 20 years.

Heidfeld will use Toyota’s Formula One car from last year, the TF109, to test the new rubber that all the teams will use from 2011 onwards.

The 33-year-old raced in Formula One right up to the end of last year, having spent 10 seasons in the sport during which he started over 150 races. Throughout his career he scored 219 points, including 12 podiums, and he is currently chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association.

The Toyota TF109 was the last Formula One car produced by the Japanese manufacturer before it withdrew at the end of 2009 after scoring five podium finishes in its final season. As such the Toyota provides contemporary technology and performance with which to test the new Pirelli PZero Formula One tyres to the limit, but does not hand an advantage to any current team.

Heidfeld will drive the car in a series of test sessions on several different circuits from August onwards. The tyre development work will focus on finding the delicate compromise needed between performance, durability and spectacle next season.

Pirelli’s development testing is getting underway less than two months since Pirelli concluded a three-year agreement with the FIA, world motorsport’s governing body, as the sole tyre supplier to the Formula One World Championship. In addition to this, Pirelli will also supply GP2 and GP3.

Following Heidfeld’s on-track work with the Toyota, all the current Formula One teams will get the chance to test the new tyres after the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in November.

Pirelli’s new tyres will be carefully designed to cater not only for the needs of the teams, ensuring a stable and consistent product, but also for the wishes of the fans to see exciting and close racing.

Consequently, Heidfeld’s role will be vital as Pirelli fine-tunes the specification of the four compounds, two of which will be used in each race next year, as per the current regulations. Heidfeld’s consistency is a crucial asset in this task: the German holds the record for the highest number of consecutive race classifications (41) and he also managed to finish every race during the 2008 season.

Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Paul Hembery commented: “We’re delighted to welcome Nick into the Pirelli family, and we’re confident that he’ll do a great job for us. The role of test driver is a crucial one, so we were looking for a driver who had plenty of recent Formula One experience, the speed to push our new tyres as hard as possible, and the consistency to provide reliable simulations, as well as the analytical skills to relay information accurately to our engineers. Nick fits the bill in every respect and we’re very pleased to have secured his services and obviously thankful to MERCEDES GP PETRONAS for agreeing to release Nick from his contract. As for the car, we have a policy of complete impartiality, so we did not want to favour any existing team. The Toyota was the perfect solution, as it is a contemporary racing machine with proven speed and reliability but without links to any of the manufacturers currently competing in Formula One. I’m confident that we have an extremely good package that will give us every opportunity to maximise the potential of our tyres prior to the start of next season.”

Heidfeld added: “It’s a great privilege for me to join Pirelli in order to carry out this vital work and I am very grateful to MERCEDES GP PETRONAS for releasing me from my contract to take on this role. Through the experience I have built up over the years, I’m confident that I will be able to provide Pirelli with some important feedback regarding the development of next year’s tyres. I’ve got a lot to give but I haven’t been driving so much this year, so it is good to get started! Together, I’m sure that we can create a dynamic range of tyres that will make Formula One an even more exciting sport in the future.”