Pirelli Sottozero Winter 210 Serie II

Decent performance, but a step behind rivals in just about all areas.

Seventh is not where you’d expect to see Pirelli, but it was the same story last year with the Snowcontrol W210. The Winter 210 was happiest in the wet, where it finished mid-pack in most tests, but was close to the top performers. It felt stable on the wet handling track, where you could get on the throttle early without running wide. The rear was also well controlled, inspiring confidence. The Sottozero took a narrow win in the noise test and was just a tenth or two off the pace on the dry handling track, although it lacked the sharpness of some and was pretty noisy. It was less successful on the snow. The results were generally close, but the Pirelli was regularly at the bottom of the premium brand pack – and gave best to the Zeta in braking and traction. The long turn of the circle with its even throttle suited it better, where the Pirelli came sixth. On the handling track, it was very sensitive to the throttle, easily spinning the wheels and making it hard to get the car turned. Once turned in, the balance was good, but that lack of front-end grip made getting a decent lap time difficult.