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Mercedes driver
Lewis Hamilton has clinched his 31st career pole position, using the Pirelli
Cinturato Green intermediate, after one of the most exciting qualifying
sessions seen all year that revolved around strategy. The sessions were all
characterised by mixed weather, which made the timing of each qualifying lap
crucial. The P Zero Orange hard and P Zero medium slick tyres – which were
also used during qualifying – have been nominated for this weekend.
With rain falling at the start of Q1, the drivers lined up in the pitlane in
order to set a banker time at the start of the 20-minute session, in case
conditions got worse. All the drivers used the intermediate tyre at the
beginning of the session, with a dry line beginning to emerge as the opening
session went on. The Caterham of Giedo van der Garde and the two Marussias
were the first to change to the medium compound with five minutes to go.
The track stayed dry for Q2, with all the drivers apart from the two
Ferraris, the Red Bull of Mark Webber and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton –
who also ran the hard tyre – using the white medium tyre exclusively during
this session. Red Bull’s Mark Webber initially went fastest on the hard
compound, before being usurped by Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen on the medium
– who ended up setting the fastest time in the session with the same
compound.
The rain returned and then got harder towards the end of the final Q3
session. Force India’s Paul di Resta was the first to put on intermediate
tyres and for most of the session it looked like this decision would be
enough to give him his first pole position. But then, as the track dried in
the closing seconds, first the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, followed by the two
Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, and finally the Mercedes of
Lewis Hamilton, successively went fastest. All of them used the intermediate
tyre.
Vettel went fastest in the final free practice session this morning, with
the drivers using the hard tyre for most of the session. At the end, Vettel
set his fastest time on the medium tyre.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “Before talking
about today’s thrilling qualifying session, we’d like to point out that
overnight investigation of the two punctures that affected Sebastian Vettel
and Fernando Alonso during free practice yesterday resulted in a clear
conclusion: Vettel’s puncture was caused by debris – a metal piece of
another car – getting stuck between the floor and the wheel, while Alonso’s
tyre was also clearly cut by the same piece. The markings on each tyre match
up and this was also sustained in the same place: turn 13.
Today’s qualifying at Spa threw up the perennial problem of some parts of
the track remaining wet while other sections dried up more rapidly. The
track was evolving by the second, and the timing of the tyre choices proved
to be crucial – bearing in mind that an out lap alone costs more than two
minutes at Spa. In the first two sessions, establishing the crossover point
from intermediates to slicks was the key, and that is likely to be very
useful knowledge for tomorrow as well, with yet more uncertain weather
predicted. Tomorrow the drivers will be able to start on whichever tyre
compound they choose, which increases the options for strategy still
further.”
The Pirelli mystery strategy predictor:
Belgium is one of the hardest races to predict a strategy for, due to the
long lap and very variable weather as we saw today, as well as the fact that
the drivers will have a free choice of starting tyres tomorrow.
Under normal circumstances, one or two stops are possible for the 44-lap
race. A two-stop strategy is faster than a one-stop by three seconds, but
only over the last five laps. So if there’s a safety car period for more
than three to four laps, teams could revert to a one-stopper.
A two-stop strategy could be:
start on the medium tyre, switch to medium again on lap 13 and hard on lap
25. Alternatively, start on the medium tyre, stop on lap 19 and then run to
the finish on the hard. |
