There was someone who said earlier in the race thread something about Merc was gonna start on the M tyre but, unfortunately, I couldn`t remind who was due to a little problem with my memory … could someone remind me who was that? Never mind
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On Q1 LEC was the only driver on M tyre and did a 1:33.613 on his fastest lap – lap 2 – and after a 2 cooldown runs, something like HAM was doing in FP2 laps sim race… Then he was pushing again setting the fastest S1 until the session was red-flagged for Albon`s crash, presumably Ferrari was trying to see had they could use them in Q2. But Ferrari abandoned the idea just after VET fails to set a time on the same tyre compound and almost lost the car in turn 15 due to poor rear grip. And that was despite Leclerc was only 4,5 tenths slower than HAM which was topping the timesheets on the S tyre on a shorter 3 lap stint…
On Q2 HAM set his fastest time – 1:33.134 – on the M tyre and was precisely 7 tenths behind LEC on S tyre both doing a 3-lap stint. So, on the same track temp – 31 deg.C – at almost 25min. apart HAM was almost 5 tenths quicker than LEC. Track evolution or was just Merc setting up the car mainly for the M tyre bearing in mind they`ll do at least 2/3 of the race on this one.
I remind you that S tyre – C4 - has the operation window between 90-120 deg.C, then the M tyre – C3 – between 105-135 deg.C and finally the H tyre – C2 – from 110-135 deg.C. I know that F2 is a world apart from F1 but it gives us some good indications tyre wise and from what we could see on the main race (just 45min. after the qualy), the M tyre was “in the window” at 30 deg.C track temp at the beginning of the race which was only 1 deg.C lower than we have had in F1 Q2 qualy. Also interesting was that at the end of the race track temp just dropped to 28 deg.C and the S tyre went to the cliff just after 2 laps!! An interesting question regarding this matter: are they allowed to change the tyres on the final lap as MSC did in Silverstone 1998?
Now regarding race pace, Pirelli said that in theory S tyre is some 6 tenths faster than M tyre which is the same 6 tenths faster than the H tyre one. Practically, after FP2 analysis HAM on the M tyre was on average (after adding the 1:38.055 last time) at 1:38.933 which is just 2,7 tenths slower from LEC S tyre stint average with 1:38.669, hence that`s the reason Merc was setting the car for …
Tomorrow at the start, had I been HAM, I would let VET pass me for at least 2 reasons: a). not to have a clash and spoil the championship chances and b). don`t think we`d see again the same tyre nursing phase for knowing that VET has something to prove which would lead to pressure LEC for the win hence degrading tyres more rapidly they would have liked for and either forced to change them earlier having to face the traffic or just go longer than expected until they`ll get a good window … Either way, I hope we could finally see the real Ferrari and Merc race pace in order to notice who has the faster car right now.
In addition, it would be interesting to see how the cars - especially Ferrari ones - will perform at the start of the race on S tyre knowing they are full tanks …
