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Tyre strategy played a key role in the Spanish Grand Prix, which was won by
Williams driver Pastor Maldonado: the first win for the British team since
the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix. The Venezuelan became the fifth different
winner in five races this year, with five different cars.
Maldonado qualified on pole, but was passed by Ferrari driver Fernando
Alonso, who made his first pit stop
on lap 11. The biggest winner from the first stint was McLaren’s Lewis
Hamilton, who went from last to fourth
before switching to the hard tyres on lap 14.
With cooler conditions of 23 degrees centigrade ambient and 32 degrees track
temperature, the working range of the P Zero Silver hard tyre came into its
own, making it the favoured option for most teams to race on. The other
nominated tyre, the P Zero Yellow soft, offered a significant performance
advantage, and was used mainly for qualifying and the beginning of the race,
with every driver starting on the soft tyre.
The key to Maldonado’s victory was when he made his second stop two laps
sooner than Alonso for the hard tyre, which enabled him to put in some quick
laps and get past the Ferrari which pitted for the second time on lap 26.
From then on, he was able to control his advantage with a three-stop
strategy, which was also adopted by Alonso. After his final stop, Maldonado
ran the P Zero Silver tyre for 25 laps to take victory by 3.1 seconds as he
and Alonso raced to the finish on the hard tyre. Both drivers started on the
soft tyre, and then used three sets of the hard tyre.
Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen, who finished third, also made good use of the
hard tyre during his final 18-lap stint to close up on the leaders over the
last 10 laps, having made three stops. By the end of the race, he was less
than a second behind Alonso. Raikkonen used a different strategy to the two
drivers in front of him, using the soft tyre twice at the beginning of the
race and then completing two stints on the hard tyre.
By contrast, Hamilton was the only person to use a two-stop strategy to
finish eighth – a result that was decided on the final lap – from 24th and
last on the grid, after his original pole position time was cancelled for a
rules infringement.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel finished sixth after four pit stops, including
one drive-through penalty, and retains the championship lead jointly with
Alonso. This is the closest start to a season since 1983 – which was also
the last time a Venezuelan scored world championship points, thanks to
Johnny Cecotto. Maldonado now becomes Venezuela’s first grand prix winner.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “With Pastor
Maldonado starting from the front and Lewis Hamilton starting from the back,
this was always going to be a fascinating race, and thanks to the tyre
strategy as well, it certainly delivered. Maldonado and Williams were quick
right from free practice on Friday, having consistently got the most out of
both tyre compounds all weekend. The final 10 laps were a fantastic duel
between him and Alonso, with less than a second separating them, on similar
strategies. Both drivers showed their tyre management skills perfectly,
managing to avoid falling off ‘the cliff’ despite pushing hard for the race
win. The tyres contributed to an extremely entertaining and tense race, but
as official supplier we will always follow the wishes of the teams and the
promoter and our future development direction will be dictated by what they
want. For the sport, we believe that it’s fantastic to have five races, five
winners and five cars – especially when it is as well deserved as the
victory that we saw from Pastor and Williams today.” |
