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KEY MOMENTS
* Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was crowned world champion for a
record-equalling seventh time, his fourth title in a row, after winning an
incredibly tricky Turkish Grand Prix. Hamilton used the Cinturato Blue full
wet tyres for eight laps followed by the Cinturato Green intermediates for
50 laps – one of only three drivers (with Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and
AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat) to stop just once.
* The entire field started on the Cinturato Blue full wet tyres, apart from
the two Williams cars, which started on the Cinturato Green intermediate.
* The crossover point – at which time it became faster to switch to the
intermediates – was reached within 10 laps of the race start, prompting a
flurry of pit stops onto the intermediate. Most drivers then stopped again,
for fresh intermediates.
* Williams driver George Russell completed the longest first stint on his
starting set of intermediates, running them for 32 laps. Hamilton ran his
second stint on the intermediates for 50 laps in the race, Perez for 48.
* The weather remained cool all day, with track and ambient temperatures in
the region of 13 degrees centigrade, and rain before the race start.
Conditions dried out throughout the race, but nobody decided to use the
slicks – due to a slippery track and with a risk of rain predicted for the
end of the race that never quite materialised.
HOW EACH TYRE PERFORMED
* INTERMEDIATE: Used for the bulk of the race, but the Williams drivers were
the only one to start on this compound. Used by all the drivers for their
second stint: the wear on this tyre determined the timing of the second pit
stop. Hamilton however ran 50 laps on them in the race – although the true
number is 53, as this was a used set.
* WET: The default option for nearly everyone at the start of the race, but
used for only about 10 of the 58 laps. Red Bull’s Alex Albon stayed out
longest on this compound, completing 12 laps on his first stint.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for an incredible seventh world title
taken in real style from sixth on the grid, where managing his tyres
brilliantly was paramount to ensure his place in history. He made just one
stop and effectively turned his intermediate tyres into slicks by the end of
the race, to extract the very maximum from them. From the beginning it was
clear that this was going to be a very complicated race where managing the
start in the wet and subsequently dealing with uncertain conditions on a
drying track would be crucial, and this proved to be exactly the case.
Judging the crossover point was key, both from wets to inters after the
start, and then – in the second half of the race – working out whether or
not the surface would provide enough grip to switch to slicks, or if the
best option was another set of intermediates for the second stint. Assessing
the crossover point from wets to intermediate was relatively straightforward
using the data from yesterday; however deciding what to do for the second
stop was much more complicated in these very unusual conditions” |