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Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton
will start tomorrow’s world championship decider from pole position after
setting a time of 1m38.755s on the ultrasoft tyre. This was a second and a
half faster than last year’s pole, when the supersoft was the softest
available compound.
In line with expectations, track and air temperatures dropped throughout
each session, meaning that the quickest times tended to come right at the
end. All the drivers were straight onto the ultrasoft in Q1, with the
exception of the Williams drivers. Only Valtteri Bottas managed to get
through to Q2 with the supersoft only.
Having gone fastest in Q1 on the ultrasoft, Hamilton lowered his benchmark
in Q2 on a fresh set of the same compound, with both him and his team mate
completing only one run to place first and second.
Red Bull was the only team to take an alternative approach to the Q2 session
by running the supersoft, which is around 0.7 seconds slower than the
ultrasoft but can last longer. Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen will
start from third and sixth on the grid tomorrow: the only cars in the top 10
to begin the grand prix on the supersoft. Both Red Bull drivers completed
their final Q2 runs on the ultrasoft, without improving their previous
times.
The final top 10 shoot-out was mostly contested over two runs, with
Hamilton’s pole time on the second run coming close to the absolute
qualifying record set in 2011.
The most likely strategy tomorrow is for two pit stops, with tactics playing
an important role in the race as the Yas Marina circuit is quite difficult
to overtake on, as has been seen in the past here during previous
championship deciders. One predictable factor should be the weather, which
is expected to be similar to conditions today.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: “Track and air temperatures fell
throughout the session, and we were also a full 11 degrees cooler on track
than the FP3 session earlier in the day. In these unique conditions the
ultrasoft came into its own, but there was an interesting variation in
strategy from Red Bull, which has opted to start the race on the supersoft.
How these different tactics play out will be a key aspect of the race and
potentially the championship outcome tomorrow.”
How the tyres behaved today:
Soft: Not seen in qualifying at all but will be a vital ingredient in
tomorrow’s race.
Supersoft: The talking point in qualifying, with Red Bull opting to use them
in Q2.
Ultrasoft: Around 0.7s.faster than the supersoft, used for the majority of
running today. |
