Saturday: Pirelli plans between one and two stops in Montreal
Paul Hembery, director of Pirelli Motorsport, notes that the gap between the Soft and Super Soft tires is smaller than expected. The Briton thus believes that some drivers might make only a single pit stop, although a two-stop strategy could be the norm.
Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel took his second pole position of the season in Canada, equipped with P Zero Red Super Soft tires. The German was the fastest in qualifying for the second consecutive time in Montreal with a time of 1:13.784. Vettel was also the fastest in the Free Practice 3 session in the morning, just six thousandths of a second ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. Both drivers were equipped with Super Soft compounds.
The ambient temperature of 24°C (35°C on track) was higher at the start of the qualifying sessions than during the Friday practice, when the teams did their setup work. For tomorrow, the conditions are expected to be even hotter during the race.
The two HRTs, Marussia, and Vitaly Petrov’s Caterham were the only cars to compete in Q1 on Super Soft tires from the start. Many leaders, like the two McLaren drivers, used the Super Softs in Q1, but Vettel was still the fastest on softs.
The 17 drivers who qualified in Q2 then attacked on Super Softs, except for the Ferrari drivers, who tried a run on Softs before switching to the fastest compound. Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes only used one set of Super Softs to make it to Q3, and once again it was Vettel who was the fastest in Q2 with the Super Softs.
The Q3 session was exclusively contested with the Super Soft compound (only Jenson Button’s McLaren ventured out for a single lap on Softs before returning to the pits). Vettel’s pole time (the best time across all sessions) was achieved during his second outing on Super Softs. However, his initial time of 1:13.905 would have been sufficient to secure pole position.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport Director: « The difference between the two compounds was less than expected in these warmer conditions, with half a second separating the Soft from the Super Soft. With a short lap and very close cars, it was almost impossible to predict who would be on pole position, and the gaps between the first and the last were incredibly tight. Only one second separates the top 17 in Q2! The level of tire degradation is currently low, with the Super Softs lasting 30 laps or more, and we might see a one-stop strategy for some teams, while the majority should still try two stops. It will all depend on the timing of the stops, and we’ll see which teams can make the most of the performance and durability of the tires that suit them best. Canada is always one of the most unpredictable races of the season and the last four races this year have been won by the driver starting from pole. However, this has historically been less important in Canada. »
Tires of the Top 10 in qualifying:
– Vettel: Super Tendre
– Hamilton: Super Tendre
– Alonso: Super Tendre
– Webber: Super Tendre
– Rosberg: Super Tendre
– Massa: Super Tendre
– Grosjean: Super Tendre
– Di Resta: Super Tendre
– Schumacher: Super Tendre
– Button: Tendre
[From the official statement published by Pirelli]
