Changeable conditions for qualifying shake up the grid for the British Grand Prix

(Pirelli Motorsport Media)

This afternoon's qualifying session in Silverstone for tomorrow's British Grand Prix was a complete lottery due to the unpredictable weather conditions. For the first time this weekend the team's were forced to use both the Pirelli full wet (blue marked tyre) and the shallower grooved Intermediate (Green marked tyre) on Saturday for both Free Practice Three and Qualifying.

Once the circuit dried out towards the end of the Q3 however, it was back to the normal dry weather tyre with all of the top ten starters for tomorrow's race completing their flying lap on the (White marked Medium) compound tyre. 

It has been predicted that the race tomorrow will be a fully dry Grand Prix which meant that teams had a difficult decision to make in relation to the set up of their cars, do they gamble and role the dice on gaining a performance advantage in qualifying which could hurt them in the race tomorrow or do they go down the conservative route, play it safe and go all out in the race tomorrow.

Pirelli believe that the best strategy for tomorrow is to start on the Medium compound followed by another Medium compound run and then finishing the race on the Hard compound. 

The Italian manufacturer believes that the fastest strategy is a two stopper however some driver's starting further down the grid may opt for a one stop race. Speaking about today's qualifying session, Pirelli Motorsport director Paul Hembery said:

'With mixed conditions throughout the day, it was a very complex qualifying session, in which judging the crossover point and amount of grip – which was constantly evolving – proved to be crucial. As a result, there were some surprises in the qualifying order all the way to the end. We’re still anticipating a two-stop race tomorrow, from what should be a very interesting grid.'

Pirelli predict that for driver's starting on the Medium compound they will stop on lap 23 and again on lap 45 if going for a Medium-Medium-Hard strategy.

A three stop strategy could also be feasible with driver's starting on the Medium tyre stopping on lap 18 for another Medium set of tyre's followed by another her stop on lap 34 and again on lap 51 for the Hard tyre but this involves the risk of emerging into track.

The most likely strategy to be employed tomorrow is a two stopper. The weather forecast will play a crucial role in strategy calls from the pit-wall. 

© Ben Johnston 2014