Bahrain GP: Pirelli Grand Prix Review

Two wins from two races in 2016 for Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, using a three-stop strategy in Bahrain that alternated stints on the P Zero Red supersoft with P Zero Yellow soft: exactly the same strategy used by Kimi Raikkonen, who was second for Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton finished third after using the medium tyre for his second stint, following contact with another competitor at the start. In total, there were nine different strategies used throughout the top 10, including a two-stopper for
Williams driver Felipe Massa.

Paul Hembery: Pirelli motorsport director: “We’re only in the second race of the 2016 tyre regulations but already we’re seeing a massive variety of strategies throughout the field, as we particularly expected to be the case this weekend. Tyre strategy started already in qualifying, as we saw from Romain Grosjean who made the most of his starting position to score more points. Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen finished just 10 seconds apart at the finish, using exactly the same strategy as each other. As well as the performance of the softer compounds, the adaptability of the product was demonstrated
by Felipe Massa, who completed the race with just two pit stops despite the high wear and degradation traditionally associated with the Sakhir track.”

Truthometer: We predicted a three-stop strategy as being fastest, starting on supersoft and then switching to soft on laps 14, 29 and 43. Rosberg made his stops on laps 13, 30 and 39, but rather than using the supersoft to start and then three stints on the soft, he used the supersoft and the soft on alternate stints.