Pirelli: Cinturato Intermediate and Wet protagonists in qualifying at Spa

Six different drivers in pole position in Belgium from 2009 to today: tomorrow it will be Nico Rosberg starting from the top of the grid. In an all-Mercedes battle, the current championship leader beat his teammate Lewis Hamilton at the end of a qualifying session held in difficult conditions, with rain and great variability. But always with a Mercedes capable of imposing a two-second advantage per lap on all the rival teams.

Preceded by a violent storm, the qualifying session began in conditions that were certainly not summery: the asphalt temperature was 19°, the ambient temperature was 10°, and the track was completely wet. The drivers left the pits on wet Cinturato Blue tyres, then switched to intermediate Green when the asphalt started to dry.

Always intermediate tires in Q2, when the circuit continued to dry allowing for a general improvement in times. A situation that continued in Q3, when the winning key to aiming for pole position was to start the last available lap just before the checkered flag. At that point the track was drier and faster, but never to the point where it was possible to switch to slick tyres.

As a result of this situation, the drivers can rely on all new slick tires for tomorrow's race, which will allow for a possible variety of strategies.

Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport Director: “The work awaiting the Teams is not simple: the expected dry race after today's wet qualifying means that the technical data collected may not be of much help tomorrow. The biggest difficulty in qualifying was not so much the rain, but its intermittency and its falling more in certain areas of the circuit than in others. As always, these conditions provided a wonderful battle for pole, decided above all by the moment chosen for the last attack before the checkered flag. For the race we expect two pit stops, although some teams may think of a three-stop strategy, considering that today's rain means that we all have enough new slick tires available for the race and can therefore think about strategies alternatives."

Pirelli strategy forecasts:

The Belgian GP is run over 44 laps: with a dry race, and given that everyone, by regulation, will have all slick tires available, the ideal strategy should be two pit stops. The fastest strategy is quite clear: start on Soft tyres; pit stop around lap 15 for a new set of Softs; second stop around lap 29 for Medium tyres. 1 or 3 pit stop strategies are theoretically possible, but do not offer appreciable advantages.

Fastest compounds in FP3: Bottas 1m49.465s Soft Nuova Ricciardo 1m49.733s Soft Nuova Rosberg 1m49.739s Soft Nuova Tires used by the top 10: Rosberg 2m05.591s Intermediate Nuova Hamilton 2m05.819s Intermediate Nuova Vettel 2m07.717s Intermediate Nuova Alonso 2m07.786 .2s Intermediate Used Ricciardo 07.911m2s Intermediate Nuova Bottas 08.049m2s Intermediate Nuova Magnussen 08.679m2s Intermediate Nuova Raikkonen 08.780m2s Intermediate Nuova Massa 09.178m2s Intermediate Nuova Button 09.776mXNUMXs Intermediate Used