Pirelli: Hembery, “Our choice to bring soft and supersoft compounds ensured lots of action on the track”

Nico Rosberg increased his lead at the top of the championship by winning the German Grand Prix. The German used a two-stop strategy, with a stint on the supersoft P Zero Red followed by two stints on the soft P Zero Yellow.
For Rosberg it is the first victory in his home Grand Prix, while, thanks to Valtteri Bottas, Williams celebrates podium number 300 today.

Rosberg's teammate Lewis Hamilton recovered 17 places to finish third after starting 20th following a qualifying crash. Hamilton switched from a two-stop to a three-stop strategy, completing the first two stints on the soft tires before finishing the final two stints on the faster supersoft tyres.
His final stint on supersoft tires was 17 laps, during which he set the fastest lap. This allowed him to close on Bottas in the closing stages and finish just 22 seconds behind Rosberg, despite a damaged front wing.

The drivers in the top positions on the grid started the race on supersoft tyres, around a second per lap faster than the soft tyres.

Track temperatures were 20 degrees Celsius lower than those seen over the past two days, but the risk of rain did not materialize.

There were many battles on the track and many overtaking: in the end the gap between the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, fifth, and the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, sixth, was less than a tenth of a second after 306 kilometers of the race.

Pirelli Motorsport Director, Paul Hembery, commented: “With lower temperatures than yesterday and the day before yesterday, the teams worked a bit in the dark regarding the behavior of the tyres. We saw many battles on the track, some very aggressive, which also affected tire wear and degradation. As expected, we saw two- and three-stop strategies; two drivers on the podium, including the winner, even stopped only twice. Despite having made one more pit stop than his rivals, Hamilton managed to gain many positions on the track with his strategy. Our choice to bring soft and supersoft compounds ensured lots of action on the track and exciting battles from start to finish, despite the different strategies adopted.”

The winning strategy:

Our strategy prediction included both two and three stops, although we considered a two-stop strategy (supersoft – soft – soft) more likely, with changes on laps 18 and 38.
Rosberg adopted a slightly different strategy, starting on the supersofts and completing the final two stints on the softs, making his first stop on lap 15 and his second on lap 41.