Mexican GP: Pirelli Grand Prix Review
By Courtesy of Pirelli
November 8 2021
|
|
|
Pirelli Mexican Grand Prix
Review |
| |
 |
| |
|
KEY MOMENTS
* Red Bull driver Max Verstappen won the Mexican Grand Prix with a one-stop
strategy, swapping from P Zero Yellow medium to P Zero White hard tyres on
lap 34. This was the most frequently-used strategy in the 71-lap race,
adopted by the majority of the field (and the strategy that Pirelli
calculated as the fastest one).
* Lewis Hamilton finished second for Mercedes after pitting on lap 30 for
hard tyres, fighting off Red Bull’s Sergio Perez for the runner-up spot in
the closing stages – with the Mexican on hard tyres that were 11 laps
younger.
* All the drivers started the race on the medium tyre, with the exception of
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, who began the race on
the P Zero Red soft from the back of the grid.
* McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and polesitter Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) both
switched to the hard tyre under a safety car on lap one. Both ended up
stopping again for medium tyres, while Bottas made two additional stops for
soft tyres at the end of the race to set fastest lap.
* Track temperature was 48 degrees at the start of the race: the highest it
has been all weekend.
HOW EACH TYRE PERFORMED
HARD C2: Key to the race in Mexico, with nearly all the drivers running the
hard for the second stint and benefitting from low wear and degradation.
MEDIUM C3: This compound provided optimal flexibility and a wide pit-stop
window. McLaren’s Lando Norris – who had started from the back of the grid –
ran the longest medium stint with 45 laps, ending up 10th at the flag.
SOFT C4: Ocon ran the soft tyre before finishing the race on the hard, the
only driver to use this strategy. Bottas also took this tyre with five laps
to go, to deprive Verstappen of fastest lap and set a new lap record.
Today’s warm track temperatures made the soft susceptible to overheating,
which meant it was not really used (as was expected).
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“It was a reasonably straightforward one-stop race for the majority of
competitors, with the medium and hard delivering great results in these high
track temperatures. The medium stood up very well to some long initial
stints, showing a strong combination of performance and consistency, with a
little help from a four-lap safety car period at the start. The hard tyre
showed good race pace, with low degradation, which made it central to
today’s grand prix in these conditions. As a result, Max Verstappen was the
first driver to beat the fastest race lap from 2019 (the last time that the
Mexican Grand Prix was run) on used hard tyres, on a track that was still
quite dusty.” |
|
|
|
BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
HARD MEDIUM SOFT
Verstappen 1m18.999s Bottas 1m19.761s Bottas 1m17.774s
Pérez 1m19.468s Verstappen 1m20.685s Ocon 1m23.436s
Hamilton 1m19.820s Pérez 1m20.761s -
LONGEST STINT OF THE RACE
COMPOUND DRIVER LAPS
HARD C2 Ocon 56
MEDIUM C3 Norris 44
SOFT C4 Ocon 14
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
Bookmark or share this story with: