Pirelli, Paul Hembery: “Interesting to see how the teams will use the tires in the race”

In the eighth round of the Formula One World Championship, in Valencia, the Red Bull Racing driver and world championship leader, Sebastian Vettel, took the seventh pole position of the season and the 22nd of his career, recording a time of 1m36.975. XNUMXs with PZero Yellow soft tires. Up to this point in the year, Red Bull Racing is therefore unbeaten in qualifying.

The German driver's time was more than half a second faster than his 2010 pole position: 1m37.587s.

Vettel used the PZero White medium tires to get through Q1, before switching to the softer PZero Yellow soft in Q2 and Q3. In the morning, Vettel had beaten last year's record in FP3, setting a time of 1m37.258s on the PZero Yellow softs. In the early stages of the third free practice, Vettel was also the fastest on the medium PZero Whites.

Qualifying was characterized by dry and hot conditions, with ambient temperatures of 27 degrees centigrade and 46 degrees for the track. In Q3, Fernando Alonso took provisional pole for Ferrari, before being beaten by McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton but, midway through the final heat, Vettel only needed a lap time of 1m36.975s, on the PZero tyres. Yellow soft, to put the seal on the pole.

With two minutes to go, Vettel returned to the track again with the same soft tires used before, without improving his time. Which was instead achieved by his teammate, Mark Webber, also on the PZero Yellow soft, who will start from second position on the grid tomorrow.

Comment from Pirelli Motorsport Director, Paul Hembery: “It was interesting to see the relative speed of the medium and soft compounds in today's hot conditions and with more rubber deposited on this rather aggressive track. Now there is a difference of more than a second between medium and soft, depending on the individual teams. But, with the high temperatures that we will also have tomorrow, and those of the track similar to those today, the advantage of the PZero Yellow soft in terms of speed will be balanced by the stability and extra durability of the PZero White medium. This tire performed very well in its race debut and it will be interesting to see how the teams decide to use it in the race tomorrow.”