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The Malaysian
Grand Prix, won by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, got underway with 59 degrees
of track temperature: the hottest race conditions seen all year.
Two stops was the winning strategy as expected, but the tactics were
influenced by three virtual safety car periods in the race – the second of
which fell just within the pit window for a two-stop race.
Many drivers took advantage of this to switch to the hard tyre, which had to
be used during the race because it was nominated twice as an obligatory
available set. But Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the only driver in the top
four to move onto the soft tyres again during that period. This helped him
undercut his direct rivals before emerging from his second stop in what
became second overall after Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton retired from the
lead with a mechanical problem – in what seemed set to be a one-stop
strategy.
Ricciardo too may have adopted a one-stop strategy, but took advantage of
the third virtual safety car period to make a final stop, which was the case
for a number of other drivers as well, including Verstappen who finished
behind his team mate to make a Red Bull one-two.
An alternative strategy was used by Williams driver Valtteri Bottas, who
started from 11th on the grid with the medium tyre and finished fifth after
one-stopping. Renault’s Jolyon Palmer tried something similar, starting from
19th on the grid with the hard tyre and then changing to the soft to finish
10th.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: “It was very close as to
whether or not a two-stopper would be quicker than the three-stop strategy
we predicted as theoretically fastest, so we saw a fascinating tactical
battle between Mercedes and Red Bull, with Red Bull splitting their
strategies to try and beat Mercedes. In the end, it was the virtual safety
cars that influenced the strategy. We also saw some different one-stop
strategies all the way down the field, with some drivers starting on the
hard and medium compound. This was all made possible by degradation being
managed from start to finish despite the highest track temperatures we have
seen all year”.
Truthometer: We predicted a winning strategy of three stops. In the
end Daniel Ricciardo stopped twice, although his second stop was influenced
by the appearance of the virtual safety car. The Australian started on the
soft (like all but four of the drivers) then changed to hard on lap 21 and
soft on lap 41. |
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