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Singapore GP: Pirelli Grand Prix Review

By Courtesy of Pirelli
September 18 2017

 
 Pirelli Singapore Grand Prix Review
 
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For the first time in its history, the Singapore Grand Prix was a wet race, with the top six starting on the intermediate tyre and a mixture of wets and intermediates further down the grid.

There were two safety car periods in the first half of the race, with the track still wet, which were used by some drivers to change from wet to intermediate tyres, while Daniel Ricciardo, who had started on intermediates, opted to change to a fresh set of intermediates. The Red Bull driver finished the grand prix second, behind the Mercedes of race winner Lewis Hamilton

The track eventually dried out after the restart, with the first drivers to change onto slicks being Haas’s Kevin Magnussen and Williams’s Felipe Massa on lap 24. Once the crossover point had been reached, all the frontrunners switched to slicks with most opting for the ultrasoft, although Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz went for supersofts – claiming his best career result of fourth at the finish. Jolyon Palmer (Renault) and Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) also took their best results in Formula 1, while Hamilton set a new race lap record of 1m45.008s on the ultrasoft: more than two seconds faster than last year’s fastest race lap.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“The start of the race was unknown territory for everyone, with no wet weather running during the weekend up to now. This tactical uncertainty was compounded by the first of three safety cars, immediately after the start, meaning that strategy was mainly a question of reacting to changing circumstances on track. Intermediates were generally the best choice for the conditions during the first half of the race, although the full wets also performed strongly on a track that was only drying out very slowly. Once the surface was dry, track evolution happened quickly, with everyone apart from Carlos Sainz – who drove a fantastic race – opting to finish the grand prix on the ultrasoft.”

TRUTHOMETER
Lewis Hamilton won the race using a one-stop strategy as predicted, but nobody
expected that it would be from intermediate to ultrasoft, on lap 29. Ricciardo, behind him, chose to take on a fresh set of intermediates under the safety car, but also used a combination of intermediate and ultrasoft. The highest-placed driver to start the race on the full wet was Force India’s Sergio Perez, who finished fifth.

 

BEST TIME BY COMPOUND

ULTRA	      	     INTER		FULL WET
Hamilton 1m45.008s   Hamilton 1m58.469s Hulkenberg 2m06.580s
Ricciardo 1m45.301s  Palmer 2m00.177s   Palmer 2m07.583s 
Bottas 1m45.405s     Ricciardo 2m00.246 Perez 2m07.642s

LONGEST STINT OF THE RACE
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 		LAPS
SOFT 		Ericsson 	4
SUPERSOFT 	Sainz 		31
ULTRASOFT 	Stroll 		32
INTERMEDIATE 	Hamilton 	29
WET 		Wehrlein 	19

 

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