Bahrain GP: Pirelli Qualifying Review
By Courtesy of Pirelli
March 31 2019
| Pirelli Bahrain GP Qualifying Review |
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Charles Leclerc claimed the
first pole position of his career to lead a Ferrari one-two, just ahead of
both Mercedes drivers. The P Zero soft tyres were used from start to finish
of qualifying in Bahrain, held under the floodlights as evening turned into
night. Pirelli’s head of F1 and car racing Mario Isola presented the Pirelli
Pole Position Award to Charles Leclerc, who becomes the second-youngest
driver in Formula 1 history to claim pole position. |
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| KEEP AN EYE ON - A wide variety of strategies, as was the case last year. As we have detailed above, there are many permutations that could work out quite well in the race. - Rapid pace: Leclerc’s pole time was also the new lap record in Bahrain. Both of the Monegasque’s flying Q3 laps were good enough for pole. - Rear tyres: this is a rear-limited race, so the drivers will have to look after them. - Unexpected weather: the race should be dry, but there was heavy rain in Manama last night and even a few drops of rain this morning. - McLaren: both cars are in the top 10 after a strong performance in Bahrain. - Daniel Ricciardo: the Renault driver, in 11th, is the first person to have a free choice of starting tyre tomorrow so can follow the theoretically fastest strategy. MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING “As usual, the drivers had to extract the most out of a circuit that was constantly changing with track temperatures dropping throughout qualifying. So the timing of the laps was critical. We saw only the soft tyre used throughout qualifying, which means that the top 10 on the grid will all start on this compound, but a number of different strategies are viable options for the race – with all three compounds. So this means that we can look forward to some intriguing action tomorrow. Congratulations to Charles Leclerc for his first pole position, having been quickest in every session throughout qualifying.” |
FREE PRACTICE 3 – TOP 3 TIMES DRIVER TIME COMPOUND Leclerc 1m29.569s SOFT C3 NEW Vettel 1m29.738s SOFT C3 NEW Hamilton 1m30.334s SOFT C3 NEW QUALIFYING TOP 10 DRIVER TIME COMPOUND Leclerc 1m27.866s SOFT C3 NEW Vettel 1m28.160s SOFT C3 NEW Hamilton 1m28.190s SOFT C3 NEW Bottas 1m28.256s SOFT C3 NEW Verstappen 1m28.752s SOFT C3 NEW Magnussen 1m28.757s SOFT C3 NEW Sainz 1m28.813s SOFT C3 NEW Grosjean 1m29.015s SOFT C3 NEW Raikkonen 1m29.022s SOFT C3 NEW Norris 1m29.043s SOFT C3 NEW MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR COMPOUND DRIVER LAPS HARD C1 Grosjean 14 MEDIUM C2 Hamilton, Hulkenberg, Kvyat 20 SOFT C3 Sainz 23 BEST TIME BY COMPOUND SO FAR COMPOUND DRIVER TIME HARD C1 Grosjean 1m32.866s MEDIUM C2 Bottas 1m30.124s SOFT C3 Leclerc 1m27.866s |
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