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THE RACE TYRE
STORY
* Red Bull driver Max Verstappen won the race with a one-stop strategy,
going from P Zero Yellow medium C3 to P Zero White hard C2 under a safety
car on lap 16 and then passing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – who followed an
identical strategy – with three laps to go. Polesitter Sergio Perez led for
Red Bull in the early stages but made his pit stop the lap before the safety
car came out, which cost him the advantage.
* All the drivers started the race on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium, with
the exception of Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Nico
Hulkenberg (Aston Martin), who began on P Zero White hard. They were also
the only ones not to stop for fresh tyres under the safety car, although
Magnussen and Hulkenberg were able to make their sole stops under a virtual
safety car with 13 laps to go before the pitlane was closed. Hamilton
stopped three laps later under green flag conditions and finished 10th: one
place behind Magnussen.
* Tyre degradation was contained throughout the race for both compounds with
some long runs close to 40 laps on the hard compound in particular, which
was used by nearly all the drivers for the final stint.
* The race got underway at 8pm local time with quite consistent temperatures
of 26 degrees ambient and 34 degrees on track, which dropped only by a
couple of degrees during the race.
HOW THE COMPOUNDS MADE THE DIFFERENCE
HARD C1: The key tyre for the race, with degradation that was close to zero.
Leclerc and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen delivered an entertaining final duel
for the lead on this compound, with Leclerc obtaining the fastest lap just
two from the end. Hamilton completed a 40-lap opening stint on the hard.
MEDIUM C2: Used by all but three drivers during the opening stint, who then
swapped onto it for their final stints. It showed good performance with
levels of degradation lower than free practices, allowing the drivers to
push hard until the end of the race.
SOFT C3: Came into its own in qualifying, but the lower degradation offered
by the medium and the hard didn’t make the soft a suitable choice for the
grand prix.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“Another good night, another good race! Once more, in conditions that were
completely different from Bahrain in terms of track layout and
characteristics, we saw the latest cars able to follow and pass each other
with some great on-track battles: which is down to the new tyres as well.
The hard was the key compound to tonight’s race, with strong performance and
almost zero degradation, as proved by Charles Leclerc’s fastest lap just two
from the end on a well-used set. The medium also had quite low degradation,
contributing to the one-stop strategy that we thought would be fastest and
helping to deliver an exciting race from start to finish. The fastest race
lap was also less than a second slower than the equivalent lap on the same
compound last year. So putting all this together, it's clear to see how the
new car and tyre package is so far delivering on all the hopes and
expectations that we had for this year. Congratulations to Max Verstappen
for the hearthbraking victory!” |
