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Ferrari and Red
Bull Racing went quickest during the two free practice sessions at the
legendary Nurburgring today. All the teams had two sets of a new version of
the P Zero Yellow soft tyre at their disposal for today only, which Fernando
Alonso used to set a time of 1m31.894s in the opening session this morning:
already beating Mark Webber’s pole time from 2009 (the last time that the
German Grand Prix was held at the Nurburgring) of 1m32.230s. In the
afternoon, Webber went quickest for Red Bull Racing with a time of
1m31.711s, using the current version of the P Zero Yellow soft tyre.
The experimental P Zero Yellow tyres are designed to offer greater
durability and less degradation than the current version, but lap times
should remain about the same: which was shown to be the case during the two
free practice sessions today. The new version of the soft tyre was also
capable of multiple-lap runs, getting quicker on each occasion, to underline
its increased durability. Just like the current P Zero Yellow compound, the
experimental tyre was branded with yellow stripes on the sidewalls. All the
teams used it
in the morning session, before running both types of tyre in the afternoon.
Weather conditions were cool and overcast, with ambient temperatures in the
region of 14 degrees centigrade and a threat of rain that did not quite
materialise. As well as both versions of the soft tyre, the drivers also
used the P Zero White medium compound tyre today: the other nomination for
the race. The difference in pace between the medium and the soft tyre was
around nine-tenths of a second, as expected, providing plenty of scope for
strategy.
Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Paul Hembery commented: “We’ve been pleased
with what we can see so far of the performance from our experimental P Zero
Yellow tyres, although we will have to wait to hear the detailed feedback
from the teams before we draw too many conclusions. However, we’ve seen that
the performance from these new tyres is similar to the pace from the current
soft tyre, but with added durability. So one
option could be to use it as a medium tyre next year. The cool conditions
today meant that the rapid warm-up time of the soft tyre was an important
factor in performance, and we expect that to remain the case for the rest of
the weekend.”
PIRELLI FACTS OF THE DAY
- There is a difference in elevation of 300 metres from the highest point to
the lowest point of the old Nurburgring Nordschleife, while the minimum
elevation of the new circuit is 565 metres and the maximum is 627 metres – a
difference of only 62 metres.
- German drivers have won 119 grands prix since the Formula One World
Championship was created: second only to British drivers who have won 214
races.
- Sebastian Vettel is already the second most successful German driver in
history, but with 16 race wins to his name so far he still has some way to
catch up with Michael Schumacher, who has 91 victories. |
