(Pirelli Motorsport Media)
Nico Rosberg took pole position for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix following an extremely action packed qualifying session at the Hungaroring today. Rosberg's fastest time in Q3 was a 1m 22.715s which the Mercedes driver completed using a brand new set of the Pirelli yellow Soft tyre.
It was a difficult session for his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton as the 2008 world champion suffered a fire in the opening Q1 session.
Out of the nine driver's who took part in the top ten shoot out seven completed their fastest lap on new sets laps with the P-Zero yellow marked Soft tyre. Tomorrow's race takes place over 70 laps and Pirelli predict a three stop strategy is theoretically the fastest way to run the race.
Pirelli believe the fast three stop strategy is to start the race on their Soft tyre before drivers make their first stop on lap 22 for another set of the Soft tyre before stopping again for a fresh set of the Soft tyre's on lap 44 before a late five lap stint on the Medium white walled tyre for the last five laps of the race.
For a two stop strategy to work out favorably driver's who choose to go down that route Pirelli recommend starting the race on the Soft tyre before making their first stop on lap 29 for another set of Soft compound tyre's before pitting again on lap 54 to complete the race on the Medium compound tyre.
Speaking about today's on track action Pirelli Motorsport Director Paul Hembery commented:
'The rain shower in Q3 showed how just a small burst of rain can really alter the situation, and with some doubt about the weather tomorrow, this is something that could affect the race as well. With the track progressively drying and become faster, the timing of the qualifying laps was crucial: especially as the clouds started to gather at the end of the session once more. We think most drivers will go for a two-stop strategy, although a three-stop could theoretically be quicker, depending on traffic. The performance gap between the two compounds means that the soft is going to be the main race tyre, with low degradation, so the strategy is going to centre around making the most of this compound’s performance.'
© Ben Johnston 2014
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