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THE ROAD TO
POLE
* Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was fastest In qualifying, with the top
three drivers covered by just six-hundredths of a second, having used the P
Zero Red soft tyre from start to finish. The same tactic was used by all the
teams, with the exception of Mercedes, which ran the P Zero Yellow medium in
Q1.
* Conditions remained dry all day, with qualifying getting underway at 3pm
in 21 degrees centigrade ambient and 23 degrees of track temperature.
* Verstappen also went fastest in the hour-long FP3 session this morning,
setting fastest time on the soft tyre. With FP3 being the first time that
the teams had run the slick compounds, they concentrated on maximising their
learning and collecting as much data as possible in a variety of
configurations, including long runs.
* With yesterday having been declared wet, the teams were entitled to a
carry-over set of slick tyres for FP3, before handing them back as per the
regulations. This gave the opportunity for extra running.
* We learned today that the degradation on the soft and medium tyres seems
higher than expected, while the performance gap between them is less than
the estimation. We saw no graining.
* The Pirelli Pole Position Award was given to Verstappen by Robert Reid,
the current FIA Deputy President for Sport and 2001 World Rally Champion
co-driver. Reid, who won his title alongside the late Richard Burns on
Pirelli tyres, is closely linked to Japanese motorsport, having competed for
manufacturers like Mitsubishi and notably Subaru – with whom he claimed his
world championship 21 years ago. In his former role, Reid has also been
involved in developing young rally drivers through the Pirelli Star Driver
scheme – organised in collaboration with the FIA – and he is additionally a
previous winner of the Pirelli International Rally in his native United
Kingdom: a round of the British Rally Championship based near Pirelli’s
facility in Carlisle. |
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STRATEGY
NOTEBOOK:
With just one hour of
free practice this morning, the teams are lacking dry data for the 53-lap
Japanese Grand Prix. The fastest strategy on paper is a two-stopper using
the soft and medium tyres: probably with the medium used once during the
middle stint. Soft followed by two medium stints is another viable
two-stopper, for those with two mediums left.
A one-stopper could be possible as well, depending on degradation rates.
This could be soft to P Zero White hard, or medium to hard – which is
slightly slower on paper but requires less management. What’s clear is that
all three compounds have a valid role to play tomorrow and a wide variety of
strategies are theoretically possible.
The weather and track conditions on Sunday will ultimately decide the way to
go. Track temperatures are expected to be a bit cooler than today and
there’s a still a chance of rain.
This might favour the softer compounds – while the wet running yesterday
could turn out to be extremely useful as well. |
