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As part of its
preparation for the 2012 season, Pirelli gave a new experimental version of
the P Zero Yellow soft tyre its debut today, during the two free practice
sessions at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. McLaren‟s Lewis Hamilton has emerged
quickest with a time of 1m39.586s, set during the second session using
Pirelli‟s current P Zero Yellow soft tyre. Hamilton‟s time is already close
to last year‟s pole position: 1m39.394s set by Sebastian Vettel.
Each driver was allocated an extra two sets of the experimental soft
compound tyre, for today only. This new tyre, which sits in between the
current soft and the current supersoft, set fastest time in free practice
one with a benchmark of 1m40.263s thanks to McLaren driver Jenson Button.
McLaren was on top for most of the session and seemed set for a one-two
before Red Bull Racing‟s Mark Webber demoted Hamilton to third: all driving
on the experimental tyre.
This tyre was used during both sessions, meaning that the teams had a total
of five sets available throughout the day. The experimental tyres will be
returned tonight, with the usual tyre allocation for Saturday and Sunday
applicable from now on.
The teams
concentrated on the two tyre compounds that will be used for the race for
the last hour of free practice two on varying fuel loads, with the McLarens
of Jenson Button and then Lewis Hamilton going fastest on the conventional P
Zero Yellow.
The P Zero
Yellow soft tyre is expected to last for around 20 laps at the race, with
the P Zero White medium tyre lasting for around 30 laps – meaning that most
drivers should stop two or three times on Sunday. There is around 1.2
seconds per lap difference in pace between the soft and the medium tyres so
far, with soft-soft-medium expected to be the default strategy.
With the Abu
Dhabi race starting at dusk and finishing at nightfall, the two free
practice sessions were held later than their usual times, allowing the
drivers to accustom themselves to the changing light and track conditions.
Pirelli‟s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “It‟s too early to draw any
detailed conclusions about the experimental soft tyre, but we‟ve gathered
plenty of information and already we have seen that it‟s got some very good
speed, comfortably surpassing the times set in free practice last year. This
new tyre is designed to have a better thermal resistance towards blistering,
which should lead to greater durability and a smaller performance gap
between the compounds, but with similar pace. Tonight we will begin to
analyse some of the data although there is still plenty of work ahead before
we have the definitive compounds fixed for next year. In the meantime we‟re
looking forward to the race on Sunday: we‟ve seen today that both Ferrari
and especially McLaren have very consistent pace on the soft tyre.”
PIRELLI FACT OF THE DAY:
The centrepiece of „Ferrari World‟ – the theme park located next to the
Yas Marina circuit – contains a rollercoaster that is designed to simulate
the acceleration of a Formula One car. The „Formula Rossa‟ ride accelerates
from 0-240kph in less than five seconds and 0-100kph in less than two
seconds. Passengers are subjected to a force of around 1.7G, which is
slightly more than a driver will experience at the start of a grand prix,
making it the world‟s fastest rollercoaster. |
