Productive WSB season for Pirelli

Pirelli addressed the 2009 road racing season as an opportunity to bring forth more firsts for the Italian manufacturer, and not just on the podium. With the newly crowned 2009 World Superbike Champion, American Ben Spies, Pirelli celebrated Yamaha's first victory in WSBK, adding to the victories of Honda, Suzuki and Ducati since the start of the experience as unique supplier.

In Pirelli's sixth year as single tyre supplier for the Superbike World Championship, the measured race time decreased by an average of 20 seconds over the previous year, signifying truly faster racing and a consistent competition level. The 2009 season saw eight manufacturers, including new entrants Aprilia and BMW, and over 120 world-class riders competing amongst the four classes at the fourteen races.

The diversity of this experience added to the absolute performance of the Diablo family of racing products which are continuously injecting technology into products like the new Diablo Rosso Corsa, made for passionate road and track riding.

Pirelli began its first two years of World Superbike operations by refining the service element to guarantee adequate support for all riders in the Superbike paddock. Following this, Pirelli opened a true search for performance, improving lap times and cornerspeed for elevated excitement and the shattering of circuit records. Recently, Pirelli has continued to deliver the same competence, but more noteworthy has been the stabilization of performance, meaning reduced lap times all the way to the checkered flag.

This was demonstrated often throughout the year, with several records being set on the ultimate or penultimate lap such as Jonathan Rea's (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) 20th lap in race 2 at Nürburgring or Noriyuki Haga's (Ducati Xerox) 21st lap in race 1 at Magny-Cours.

From the 48 dry solutions available to riders this season between the World Superbike and Supersport grids, one front and three rear tyres will enter the 2010 Pirelli Racing product range and be available to all authorized customers on the market. With as many as 6000 tyres delivered each weekend, the cutting-edge technologies are transferred quickly into street product through Pirelli's application of perfected constructions concepts. The new Diablo Rosso Corsa adopts a carcass from the Superbike class and shoulders of its III zones compound rear tyre are offspring to those of the Superstock class.