Pirelli: Summary of Strategies for the Brazilian GP

The new soft tire that was seen for the first time in competition today will be combined with a new structure for 2012 to lay the foundation for the future medium tire, now that the season is over. All tires, apart from the super soft compound, will be new next year, making their debut during the first official 2012 tests next February in Spain.

While the initially forecasted rain did not arrive, Mark Webber won his first race of the season using the soft yellow-walled tires and the medium white-walled tires. He took the lead of the race on the 29th lap after his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, was handicapped by gearbox problems despite starting from pole position. This is Mark Webber’s seventh career victory, allowing him to take the third place in the final driver championship standings.

Some scattered showers fell on the Interlagos paddock an hour before the race started, but the Grand Prix took place on a dry track with air temperatures around 24°C. All cars started on soft tires, which gave the teams more flexibility in their strategies in case of rain, which ultimately did not occur.

Jenson Button was the first top driver to switch to medium tires on lap 31, using a different strategy from his teammate, Lewis Hamilton. The top four drivers at the finish adopted a three-stop strategy, while Felipe Massa, in fifth place, was the highest-ranked driver on a two-stop strategy, having completed two stints on soft tires and a final stint on medium tires.

Button was the only driver to use medium tires for two stints, making his last stop on lap 52. The Englishman was able to push during his final stint while vying for a podium finish, which he achieved with nine laps to go. It’s his eighth podium in nine races, cementing his position as the world championship runner-up.

The fastest lap of the race was set on medium tires by Mark Webber, in the very last lap. This is the Australian’s eighth fastest lap in a race, who is the holder of the 2011 DHL Fastest Lap trophy.

Paul Hembery – Director of Pirelli Motorsport: It didn’t turn out to be the race that most people expected, as the forecasts predicting rain did not materialize. For the last race of the season, there were some mechanical issues on certain cars, but our tires have been completely reliable, as they have been throughout the year, without the slightest structural problem: we achieved our goal of having a performance gap of less than one second between our compounds, which should be the case again next year.

The season has exceeded our expectations as we witnessed the most overtakes in Formula One history, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank our entire team in Milan, Didcot, and Izmit for their extraordinary work this season. They can all be proud of what we have accomplished. I would also like to thank all the teams and drivers for their unwavering support, advice, and partnership.

In order to better understand this graph, you can use the lap-by-lap summary provided by the FIA by clicking here.