Saturday: Pirelli expects strategic gambles during the race

2011 World Champion Sebastian Vettel secured a new pole position at the Buddh International Circuit for the thirteenth time this season. The dusty conditions of the brand-new Buddh circuit make the track very slippery, despite a full day of driving yesterday and Saturday morning’s practice sessions. Once again, a difference of sometimes more than two seconds per lap was observed between the hard silver-sided compound and the soft yellow-sided one.

The soft tires were therefore used by all teams starting from the second part of the qualifying sessions. Many of them had already chosen to set times with them at the end of Q1. Only the Red Bull Racing cars of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, as well as the Ferrari cars of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa and the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, moved on to Q2 after setting a time on hard tires.

To preserve their tire allocations for the race, some drivers – including those from Force India, racing at home – completed only one lap during Q2. The competition was tough, even for the 10th position: 10th and 11th, Alguersuari and Petrov recorded an identical time! Since the young Spaniard set his time first, he was the one with the opportunity to advance to Q3.

Four single-seaters (Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, and Webber) left the pits at the start of Q3. Vettel, Button, and Rosberg chose to go out a little later. Adrian Sutil went on the track without setting a time, while both Toro Rosso cars stayed in the garage: they will start 9th and 10th, behind Sutil.

Vettel’s consistency with the soft tires was also exemplary this morning during free practice 3. The German set a time of 1:24.824 on his last lap, four-tenths of a second faster than his closest rival. Two to three pit stops are expected tomorrow in the race for most drivers. However, a one-stop strategy is not completely ruled out, and some teams might decide to take a gamble.

Paul Hembery, Director of Pirelli Motorsport:

« The highlight of the qualifications was the nearly two-second per lap difference between the hard and soft compounds, although we saw Vettel clock the best time on hards during the first part of the qualifications ahead of other drivers on softs. This gap between the compounds means that teams focused on the soft tires in Q3. We observed good durability and great performance from the softs, which should last 20 to 25 laps tomorrow; the hards should last much longer. The information collected so far will be useful for the choice of compounds for next year, which is one of the priorities as the season comes to an end ».

[From the Pirelli press release]