Pirelli: Summary of Strategies for the Abu Dhabi GP

Lewis Hamilton clinched his third victory of the season on the Abu Dhabi track after a race that saw him make two pit stops. Two initial stints on yellow-walled soft tires followed by a shift to white-walled medium compound guided Hamilton to his 17th career win, bringing his total victories in 2011 to three, following successes in China and Germany.

The top three in the race adopted the same strategy, while Mark Webber attempted a three-stop gamble, only switching to medium tires at the start of the last lap of the race. Paul di Resta was the only driver to make just one stop, switching from mediums to softs on the 27th lap. The Scotsman completed a final stint of 28 laps on the soft tires. However, the majority of drivers opted for a more conservative approach with two stops to cover the 55 laps.

Hamilton took the lead from the first lap, following Sebastian Vettel’s retirement, who suffered a sudden loss of pressure in his right rear tire in the early corners. The cause of this incident is still under investigation by Pirelli engineers. This stroke of fate ends a series of 19 consecutive podiums for Red Bull Racing. It is the first time in as many Grand Prix that Sebastian Vettel has not finished the race.

As always, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix began at dusk and ended at night, with temperatures stabilizing around 28°C by the end of the race. This factor contributed to prolonging the lifespan of the tires; the softs lasting nearly 25 laps, and the mediums able to cover up to 30 laps. The race was enlivened by the relentless battle between Hamilton and Alonso, who moved up to second by the end of the first lap from fifth place on the grid. Alonso stayed on track two laps longer than Hamilton during the last round of pit stops in an attempt to overtake the Brit, but he will have to be content with his 10th podium this season, his first in Abu Dhabi.

Despite starting from the back of the grid due to mechanical problems during qualifications, the steadfast Rubens Barrichello managed to climb up to 12th position with his Williams, thanks to a two-stop strategy and starting the race on mediums. Kamui Kobayashi scored points for Sauber for the first time in seven races with a similar strategy.

Paul Hembery, Director of Pirelli Motorsport: « We are still examining with Red Bull Racing the remains of Sebastian Vettel’s tire to try to understand what happened. It is clearly a very unusual incident, and we went to see the spot on-site with Sebastian. There seems to be no obvious reason for the moment. The set of tires used by Vettel was the one used in qualifying. Until we know more, there is no point in speculating.

With the drop in temperatures, our soft and medium tires faced different racing conditions than usual, and some teams attempted varied strategies, ranging from one to three pit stops.

I was told that only 11 overtakes took place here last year, and this is clearly a contrast to this year’s race. Normally, we would be getting ready to head home, but we are now turning our attention to the young drivers’ tests, where we will be evaluating our range of 2012 tires for the first time ».

[From the official Pirelli press release]

To better understand this chart, you can use the lap-by-lap synthesis from the FIA by clicking here.