Azerbaijan GP: Pirelli Qualifying Review


By Courtesy of Pirelli
April 28 2019

 
 Pirelli Azerbaijan GP Qualifying Review
 
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Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has claimed pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, using P Zero Red soft tyres from start to finish in a heavily delayed session due to multiple red flags. Bottas received his Pirelli Pole Position award from this morning’s Formula 2 Feature Race winner Jack Aitken, underlining the Pirelli-equipped ladder of opportunity that in the past has taken drivers all the way from Formula 3 to Formula 1.

POSSIBLE RACE STRATEGIES
A one-stop strategy is the clear choice for this 51-lap race: either going from soft to medium or medium to soft (which makes little difference). If starting on the soft, the best option is to stop on lap 25; if starting on the medium it’s best to stop on lap 26. Nonetheless, there’s a very wide pit stop window here: effectively from lap 15 onwards, so those numbers can be considered only as a guide. As we’ve already seen this weekend and from the past, the strategy can be heavily influenced by safety cars, but on paper a two-stopper is slower.
 
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KEEP AN EYE ON
- The weather. Qualifying took place in a relatively chilly 15 degrees ambient and 26 degrees of track temperature by the end of the session. It may well be quite similar tomorrow, with the race starting just after 4pm.
- Safety cars. The Formula 2 race today was dominated by safety cars, and the safety car has been a regular feature of the Baku race in Formula 1 as well. Today was a timely reminder of everything that can happen on a street circuit.
- Flexible strategies. Although almost all in the top 10 will start on the soft tyres, strategies will vary considerably depending on potential safety cars and interruptions (in combination with a wide pit stop window). It’s a hard one to call.
- Rapid speeds. Top speeds of more than 345kph were recorded on the start-finish straight, while the pole time was a second faster than last year.
- Charles Leclerc. If he starts from 10th on the grid as he was classified, he will be the only one in the top 10 to begin the race on the medium compound.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“rack temperatures were quite cool today once more. The surface was very slippery, leading to a few lock-ups and flat spots, and we saw the soft tyres used nearly from start to finish of qualifying: Ferrari on the medium in Q2 being the only exception. In theory, because tyre wear and degradation are not significant here, this should be a one-stop race. But with the number of incidents and potential safety cars, it’s difficult to make an accurate prediction: especially as there is a very wide pit stop window. The numerous delays meant that track temperatures dropped quite dramatically during the session, which ended at nearly 7pm local time, so the drivers were presented with a very different surface compared to what they had started with, influencing tyre behaviour and strategy.”
  
FREE PRACTICE 3 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER		TIME		COMPOUND
Leclerc		1m41.604s	SOFT C4 NEW
Vettel		1m41.802s	SOFT C4 NEW
Verstappen	1m42.852s	SOFT C4 NEW

QUALIFYING TOP 10
DRIVER		TIME		COMPOUND
Bottas		1m40.495s	SOFT C4 NEW
Hamilton	1m40.554s	SOFT C4 NEW
Vettel		1m40.797s	SOFT C4 NEW
Verstappen	1m41.069s	SOFT C4 NEW
Perez		1m41.593s	SOFT C4 NEW
Kvyat		1m41.681s	SOFT C4 NEW
Norris		1m41.886s	SOFT C4 NEW
Giovinazzi	1m42.424s	SOFT C4 NEW
Raikkonen	1m43.068s	SOFT C4 NEW
Leclerc		-
 
MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND	DRIVER					LAPS
HARD C2		Albon, Giovinazzi, Kvyat,		1
Magnussen, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Russell,
Verstappen
MEDIUM C3	Grosjean, Norris, Raikkonen, Vettel	18
SOFT C4		Bottas					19

BEST TIME BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND	DRIVER		TIME
HARD C2		-		-
MEDIUM C3	Leclerc		1m41.995s
SOFT C4		Bottas		1m40.495s
 
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