The 195 HP produced by the red fury from Borgo Panigale will hit the ground through the brand new, original equipment Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP tyres in 120/70 ZR17 for the front and the fresh new 200/55 ZR17 for the rear. They will also be used starting this year by Superstock 1000 FIM Cup riders in the SC compound version

Multiple world Superbike champion Troy Bayliss had this to say after testing them on the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi: "Simply excellent tyres. I know Pirelli quality well, but this time they've managed to astonish me. Good job, Pirelli"

Following on from the world press launch of the Ducati 1199 Panigale, Link International is pleased to announce the Australian availability of the new Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP (Sport Production) tyres, which are original equipment on this technologically advanced new model from Ducati. Below is a copy of the original Pirelli Press Release from this launch, which includes technical details of the exciting new Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP chosen by Ducati for the 1199 Panigale.

Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), 13 February 2012 - Abu Dhabi Yas Marina circuit: 440 brand new Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa tyres were readied to devour the asphalt along with 28 Ducati 1199 Panigale bikes. Following the introduction of the new P Zero tyres at the end of January for the 2012 Formula 1â?¢ season, just a few weeks later the boys from Pirelli returned to the Yas Marina circuit in the United Arab Emirates capital, this time in support of the press launch for the new supersport Ducati, the 1199 Panigale, which is now available on the market with the new Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP (Sport Production) tyres as original equipment. The newest member of the Diablo family, introduced for the first time at EICMA 2011 in the first flagship Store Pzero Moda which opened last September in Milan, sees the Italian red fury shod in sizes of 120/70 ZR17 for the front and 200/55 ZR17 for the rear. They will also be exclusively used starting this year in the SC compound (Special Compound) version by Superstock 1000 FIM Cup riders.

There were two top notch testers at the 1199 Panigale press launch: three time World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss and Ducati Vehicle Technical Director Andrea Forni, both of whom were able to test the performance of the Diablo Supercorsa tyres in the race replica SP version adapted for daily street use, and the SC compound version which will be used this year by all the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup riders. Together with Pirelli riders and other Ducati testers, the two Ducati gurus rode lap after lap, fully enjoying the spectacular performance of the Diablo Supercorsa shod Panigale.

"Simply excellent tyres", said the enthusiastic Australian who won the World Superbike Championship riding the bikes from the Borgo Panigale based manufacturer in 2001, 2006 and 2008.

If the SP version won me over due to its wonderfully neutral steering and exceptional feel even at extreme lean angles under brakes, then the SC2 compound version literally blew me away. It is an astonishingly good tyre, right up there with the best race tyres - great job Pirelli!

A much appreciated feature of the new tyre is its extraordinary capacity to attack corners under heavy braking, with extreme neutrality until reaching the apex, guaranteeing grip and an absolute level of stability during subsequent acceleration. These are characteristics which Troy Bayliss skilfully took advantage of in spectacular test runs on both the standard version of the bike shod with Diablo Supercorsa SP and on the Kit bike with the SC2 version.

Engineer Forni's opinion confirms Bayliss' comments: "The new Diablo Supercorsa SP tyres in this 200/55 version are without a doubt the best street legal racing tyres in the world at the moment, and I must say the best that I have ever had the opportunity to test in my career".

Pirelli decided to introduce this new tyre gradually into the racing world, with only the SC2 compound version which will be used in Superstock 1000 FIM Cup starting this year, and only in sizes 120/70 ZR17 for the front and 200/55 ZR17 for the rear as standard original equipment on the 1199 Panigale and already available on the market as a replacement tyre.

At the beginning of 2013 Pirelli will expand the SP street range with 180/55, 190/50 and 190/55 sizes for the rear and will make the SC0 and SC1 compounds available for the SC version as well as 150/60, 160/60, 180/55, 180/60, 190/55 sizes for the rear and 110/70 for the front in order to extend use of the new tyre to national championships.

Ducati Motor Holding General Director, Claudio Domenicali, said: "The journalists who tested the bike are very satisfied with the features and performance of the 1199 Panigale. Great credit certainly goes to the tyres that Pirelli developed in close cooperation with Ducati. The new Diablo Supercorsa SP demonstrated performance and extremely high and consistent riding levels even in the difficult conditions represented by a demanding track and high test temperatures like the ones at Yas Marina. These are difficult conditions that, together with the particular asphalt grade brought out the quality of the tyres even more. This is even more confirmation of just how effective the cooperation between Ducati and Pirelli is in setting increasingly high levels of quality".

Further proof of this excellent cooperation between Ducati and the Pirelli research and development division is the fact that Pirelli received the Best Product Innovation Award on 7 November. Ducati awards this honour to the most innovative supplier of the year, this year awarded for the excellent work done in developing the Scorpion Trail tyre for Ducati Multistrada and the Diablo Rosso II in the new 240/45 size for the Ducati Diavel.

"The new Diablo Supercorsa SP is certainly the highest performance street legal racing tyre ever designed by Pirelli", emphasized Uberto Thun-Hohenstein, Senior Vice President of the Pirelli Motorcycle Business Unit "and the signals we are receiving from Abu Dhabi confirm the excellent work that our research and development has done, successfully improving a product, the Diablo Supercorsa, that so far has won 65 Championship victories in 18 countries in national and international open tyre championships. We are also very proud of the solid and lasting technological and development partnership with Ducati who, after the tyres for Multistrada, Diavel and Streetfighter 848, are providing us with great satisfaction even with this new product which confirms Pirelli's leadership in the premium segment and its constant commitment to investing in innovation".

The new Diablo Supercorsa SC (Special Compound), destined only for competition, is the evolution of Pirelli's most victorious supersport racing product into an even higher performance tyre designed to hold precise racing lines on straight stretches as well as bends. It provides a profile which favours handling, better wear in racetrack use, incomparable grip and unprecedented racing performance.

In the street version used by the 1199 Panigale, the Diablo Supercorsa SP is a concentration of technology which draws from Pirelli's racing experience and heritage as sole supplier of the World Superbike Championship since 2004, based on an ideal procedure of transferring sport technology to high performance street legal products. This street tyre, designed for professional riders and for bikers who have a sport street riding style but also love the track, provides racing performance typical of track-only products, allowing the user to have one ultra high performance product that can be used on the street or the track without having to make compromises. Compared to the SC version, the Diablo Supercorsa SP offers a bi-compound rear tyre in order to better adapt to street use, as well as more regular wear which favours mileage.

Both the Diablo Supercorsa versions (SP and SC) have a new profile on the front and rear which, compared to the 190/55 version for example, is taller with about 2 mm more cord and about 4 mm more central diameter for greater support during braking and to make riding more intuitive and line holding more precise. In particular, the new 200/55 size is the widest ever mounted on a street legal Ducati Superbike, with the rear tyre completely redesigned and developed to increase the contact area and have more grip while leaning. The harmony of the front and rear profiles therefore ensures greater handling and agility.

The rear 200/55 size of the Diablo Supercorsa SP implements a bi-compound solution in order to permit both increased mileage and more grip while leaning. EPT (Enhanced Patch Technology) has also made it possible to use 23% softer compound in the shoulder area (compared to the previous Diablo Supercorsa SP version) which now accounts for the 33% of the pattern extension on each side, guaranteeing better grip in mid to full lean. Finally, new polymers used for the SP compound helps to achieve faster warm-up and improved grip in all conditions.

The performance of the compounds is further enhanced by the new and aggressive single element tread pattern, which revolves six times on the tyre surface. The result is that the "naked" area of the slick shoulders is 24% wider compared to the previous Diablo Supercorsa, increasing contact area and grip. The long longitudinal grooves, expanding from the central area to the shoulder, improve wear regularity particularly under extreme usage, and helps to drain water lying on the road or track surface.

The solutions adopted for the compound (soft compound area 23% larger) and the tread (greater extension of the slick area on the shoulders) guarantee a significant increase in grip and traction, allowing the motorcycle to maintain higher cornering speeds. This higher speed, however, made it necessary to use a new structure, derived directly from the ones used in competition and able to provide greater resistance to deformation. This is why the Diablo Supercorsa SP rear tyre now has a carcass made from an innovative high module fibre, patented by Pirelli and developed in WSBK, with a considerably lower deformation ratio than the fibre normally used in street tyres. The result is a new carcass which is more rigid, both at the centre and in the shoulder area. This provides greater resistance to the stress created by aggressive cornering or when accelerating early out of turns with the bike still at high lean angles. The new carcass helps the bike achieve better performance each time the weight shifts from the front to the rear and vice versa, a characteristic which is even more evident as the lean angle increases.

And last, but not least, Diablo Supercorsa SP lets you personalise your tyre with special rubber labels that can be applied to dedicated spaces on the front and rear sidewalls. Each rider can create a completely customized label for these spots on the Pirelli web site and have them delivered directly to their door (service available in Europe and Australia).

The new Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP tyres are available in Australia now. RRP for a front 120/70ZR-17 is $234, while the matching rear tyre has a RRP of $335.00

Pirelli Motorcycle Tyres are imported and distributed exclusively in Australia by Link International. www.linkint.com.au

For more information contact:

Don Nicholas +61 1 33825000 don@linkint.com.au

Leo Cash +61 7 33825000 lcash@lilnkint.com.au