Saturday 22 November 2014

Three stop strategy possible but two stopper more likely for the season finale in Abu Dhabi

(Pirelli Motorsport Media)

Pirelli go into tomorrow's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final race of the 2014 Formula One season with the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton locking out the front row with Rosberg claiming his eleventh pole position of the season using a brand new set of the red walled Super Soft tyre to set his pole position time which was a 1m 40.480s.

Rosberg's team mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton was second and made a number of errors during his run in Q3 and finished the session 0.386s behind Rosberg.

Eight of the team drivers who took part in Q3 did their fastest times on brand new sets of the Super Soft tyre. Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo completed his fastest lap on a used set of the Super Soft tyre but will start the race from the back of the grid alongside team mate Sebastian Vettel.

Scuderia Toro Rosso Daniil Kvyat was the only other driver to complete his fastest run in Q3 on a used set of Super Soft tyre's. The Russian has equaled his best grid position of the season as he has been promoted to fifth place on the grid which is where he started his race from in Sochi.

Speaking about today's running Pirelli Motorsport Director Paul Hembery stated: 

'With so much at stake, it was an exciting qualifying session that as usual went down to the very final seconds. Tyre performance was in line with our expectations, and the first stint in particular tomorrow on the supersoft tyre will be crucial in determining the stint length for the rest of the grand prix. We’re still looking at two stops for the race, with a possibility of three for some competitors.'

© Ben Johnston 2014

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