Pirelli, Paul Hembery: “A lot of data to analyze before we can accurately predict stint lengths”

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg restarts from where he finished last week, after taking pole and his first career victory in the Chinese GP, setting the best time of the day during free practice in Bahrain. Rosberg recorded his best time of 1m32.816s with the P Zero Yellow soft tire during the second free practice session, characterized by high asphalt temperatures. The P Zero White medium tire will also be on the track in Bahrain.

The Sakhir circuit has returned to its original layout, the one that had characterized the track until 2009, when a series of curves were added that increased its length.

This return gives the circuit a faster and smoother configuration, with 15 corners instead of the previous 23 that put more stress on traction and the front left tire in particular.

One of the main characteristics of the Bahrain circuit is the presence of sand on the track, brought by the wind from the surrounding desert; a much more evident element in the first free practice session this morning, although to a lesser extent than expected by the Teams. The effect of the sand is to make the cars slide, increasing thermal degradation and slowing down lap times.

McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton set the best time of 1m33.572s in the first free practice session of the morning, using the P Zero White medium tyres. Team Force India was the only one to use soft tires in the first session of the morning, placing Paul di Resta in third place and Nico Hulkenberg in sixth.

Temperatures progressively rose throughout the day, with the second free practice session of the afternoon taking place with ambient temperatures of 31 degrees centigrade and asphalt temperatures of 40 degrees centigrade.

After reaching the peak, the temperature on the track dropped again, and that's when Rosberg set his best time. These are the conditions that will most likely also characterize qualifying and the race, which is why the teams used both compounds extensively during testing, in order to collect as much data as possible.

Williams driver Pastor Maldonado was the first to switch to the P Zero Yellow soft tyres, 20 minutes into the second session, followed later by several other drivers.

With half an hour to go, many teams concentrated on the long runs with a full tank of fuel: to cover every possibility, some teams chose to divide the work between the soft compound and the medium compound.

Once again, Rosberg demonstrated his ability to best manage the P Zero tyres, setting the fastest time with a gap of almost half a second to Red Bull driver Mark Webber, the second fastest driver of the day.

Pirelli Motorsport Director, Paul Hembery, said: “The sand on the track, a phenomenon we know well after the tests done here in the past, limited the useful laps in the morning. There was then a much busier afternoon session, with the teams testing both compounds in order to make up for lost time. All the teams carefully analyzed the effects of track temperatures on performance, an element that will represent an integral part of the their strategies for qualifying and for the race, as will the monitoring of degradation. From what we have been able to observe so far, the difference between the two compounds is around 0,6 seconds per lap and the level of tire wear is in line with expectations. But we still have a lot of data to analyze before we can accurately predict stint lengths for each compound, considering this is the first time we have raced on this track."