Pirelli reveals the drivers’ tyre allocation before the Belgian GP
The three top drivers Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen have the very exact tyre allocation for the Belgian Grand Prix. As usual, the initially different tyre selection for this even has evened out for the race day.
Despite the fastest speeds and cars ever seen at the epic Spa-Francorchamps track, just one pit stop is possible in today’s race if conditions remain dry and tyre wear stays low. However, Hamilton, Vettel and Räikkönen all have one fresh set of supersofts which means they can switch to a two-stop strategy if conditions or unexpectedly higher tyre wear would not favour a one-stop strategy option.
The supersoft compound which broke the Spa track record in the second qualifying segment will be used by nearly all the top 10 for the race start. It was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who topped the timing sheet on the softest compound available at this event when the German clocked a 1:41.501 to set up a new unofficial lap record.
Pirelli’s head of car racing Mario Isola thinks that the majority of drivers will pursue a one-stop strategy given the tyre behavior seen over the last two days.
“After a lot of uncertainty about the weather, the rain finally materialised at the end of Q2. In the end, the Cinturato Green intermediates proved to be the best option in Q3, with different levels of water on the track, which is quite typical of Spa. This made it very hard to judge the final qualifying runs, with the cars driving on the intermediates for the first time all weekend. The race, by contrast, seems more likely to be dry, in which case we can expect one pit stop for the majority of competitors, with the correct pace management,” concluded Isola.
