Pirelli: Hembery, “A three-stop strategy is theoretically the fastest”

Held for the first time in the evening, the Bahrain Grand Prix also hosted the first dry qualifying of the season, allowing the teams to make the most of their P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft tyres.

Since free practice revealed a gap of more than a second between the medium and soft compounds, the priority for the drivers was to get to Q3 while keeping as many sets of new soft tires as possible for the race. In the past, this would have pushed teams to limit runs in Q3. However, the new tire regulations, supported by Pirelli, see the provision of an extra set of softer tires for Q3; this meant that the top 10 riders were all on track today.

However, the teams that do not advance to Q3 are not at a disadvantage, as they can use the additional set in the race.

Qualifying, especially on dry surfaces, is more challenging this year due to the new power units. In fact, it is no longer possible to do two consecutive flying laps at full power due to the power unit's charging system.

This has an effect on the tyres, which have to deliver peak performance in a single flying lap.

Despite the radical changes on the 2014 cars, the difference between this year's pole position time (1m33.185s) and last year is less than a second. Also last season, pole was scored by Rosberg.

Pirelli Motorsport Director, Paul Hembery: “The asphalt temperature decreased constantly throughout the session, and this is what we also expect for tomorrow's race. This meant that the fastest times were set right at the end.

We saw all 10 cars on track during Q3, which shows that the new tire rules are working and fans will be able to see action on track from start to finish. We have also seen a notable evolution of the track in the last two days, with increased levels of grip.

We expect the soft compound to be the favorite for tomorrow's race, in which we expect 2-3 pit stops. The teams will, however, have to adapt the order in which they use the tires to the characteristics of their single-seaters and the track conditions."

The Pirelli strategy:

A three-stop strategy is theoretically the fastest, although teams with low levels of degradation may try two.

The three-stop strategy involves starting on soft tyres, fitting a new set of softs on lap 17, switching to mediums on lap 33 and performing a final stint on softs from lap 41.

A two-stop strategy could be as follows: start on the softs, new set of softs on lap 22 and last stop to change to the mediums on lap 44.