Pirelli: Hembery, “We expect a two-stop race”

Pirelli – Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, took pole position for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, using the P Zero Red supersoft tyres. The softest compound in the Pirelli range is about a second faster than the P Zero Yellow soft, also chosen for the last race of the season.
Statistically, in the five GPs held in Abu Dhabi, only once did the driver who obtained pole position also win the race (Sebastian Vettel in 2010); However, there were three times when the second on the grid crossed the finish line first.

With today's pole, Mercedes equals the world record of 12 doubles in a season.

The weather conditions were dry and warm, as expected throughout the weekend; Q3 started at 17pm with a track temperature of 40 degrees centigrade and an ambient temperature of 31 degrees.

The temperature of the asphalt dropped during the hour of qualifying, and this altered the normal evolution of the track, making it difficult to understand at what point in each semi-session the track was fastest.

Valtteri Bottas, Williams, was the only driver to finish Q1 using only the soft tyres, while all the others used the supersofts. The soft should be the tire of choice in tomorrow's race while the teams generally used the supersoft for qualifying.

In Q1 and Q2, the Mercedes drivers used just one set of supersofts per session, as did Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. In Q3 all the drivers fighting for pole completed two runs on supersoft tyres: Rosberg was fastest in the first attempt after a small mistake made by Hamilton.

Hamilton then chose to make his second attempt last, but still failed to beat his teammate, while Bottas qualified third.

Hamilton was fastest in yesterday's two free practice sessions, while Rosberg was fastest in FP3 in the afternoon, on the supersoft tyre.

Pirelli Motorsport Director, Paul Hembery, said: “It was a very exciting qualifying session which, as usual, was decided in the final seconds. The performance of the tires was in line with our expectations and tomorrow, in particular, the first stint on the supersofts will be crucial in determining the length of the subsequent stints. We expect a two-stop race, with the possibility for some drivers to make three.”

The Pirelli strategy:

A two-stop strategy is theoretically the fastest for the 55-lap race. To be done like this: start with the supersoft, change to the soft on the eighth lap, then back to the soft on the thirty-first. A three-stop “sprint” strategy is also feasible, but involves risks in terms of traffic. The fastest three-stop strategy would be: start on supersoft, switch to soft on lap seven, switch to soft again on lap 23, and soft again on lap 39. If you can avoid getting stuck in traffic, this strategy it is, in theory, less than two seconds slower over the total 305,355 kilometers of the race. Since statistically there is only a 40% probability of the safety car coming in, this should not be a determining factor in the choice of strategy.