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The medium tyre,
which is now about eight-tenths of a second faster than the hard tyre, held
the key to qualifying in Barcelona. Yesterday the gap between the compounds
was on average over a second, but this difference has now been reduced.
The drivers faced a tough task during qualifying, with track temperatures
increasing considerably during the afternoon compared to the morning,
peaking at 44 degrees centigrade. This is likely to be the case again for
the race tomorrow, but despite these demanding conditions and the
high-energy load through the tyres, a maximum of three pit stops is expected
for the majority of runners. There was no graining, while wear and
degradation has also diminished throughout the weekend so far.
With Formula One returning to Europe, this was only the second qualifying
session all year (after Bahrain) that was held in entirely dry conditions.
For the first time in their history, Mercedes claimed a fifth consecutive
pole position, clinching their second one-two on the grid this season.
Mercedes driver Hamilton, who saved a set of medium tyres by getting through
Q1 on the hard tyre, took pole position for the 35th time in his career.
This puts him just 10 poles behind the 45 pole positions claimed by Red
Bull’s Sebastien Vettel: the most successful driver of the Pirelli era.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “When the teams analyse the
data tonight, they will decide between a two or a three stop race, as in
many cases the simulation data suggests almost identical race times between
the two approaches. As ever, the first stint on full fuel will be key to
this. Qualifying in Barcelona went very much the way that people expected,
even though the teams did not test here this year and two red flags
interrupted the session, which clearly affected qualifying strategies as
well. Track conditions between free practice this morning and qualifying
were very different, which obviously had an effect on the grip levels, but
these are the conditions we can expect for the race tomorrow as well.
Historically, the driver starting from pole here has the race win very much
stacked in his favour. However, Fernando Alonso’s famous win here last year
from fifth on the grid shows just what is possible with a good race
strategy. The tyres are the same for everybody and Formula One is a
meritocracy: so it will simply be down to which teams and drivers are able
to get the most out of them.”
The Pirelli strategy predictor:
According to our calculations, the fastest way to approach the 66-lap race
is with three stops. Start on the medium tyre, change to the medium on lap
20, medium again on lap 38, and hard on lap 54.
A two-stop strategy could also
be possible. In which case: start on the medium, change to medium on lap 22,
then change to hard on lap 45. |
