Thrilling racing at Pirelli’s debut in Australia

Pirelli’s first race of its three-year agreement to supply Formula One has provided close competition, two to three pit stops per car, and a total race time that was three minutes quicker than last year underlining the performance of the PZero tyres.

This year’s PZero tyres have been designed to combine technology with entertainment,
contributing some breath-taking duels from the start to the finish of the Australian race
and plenty of overtaking.

Prior to the race Pirelli predicted two to three pit stops for most runners, and this proved
to be exactly the case. Eleven of the 16 classified finishers, including race winner Sebastian Vettel, stopped twice, with five finishers stopping three times and one driver –
21-year-old rookie Sergio Perez – stopping only once en route to seventh place.

The podium finishers, from three different teams, all stopped twice. All the top three
finishers started the race on soft option tyres and ended it on the harder prime, having
completed their first two stints on the option tyres. This turned out to be the most
effective strategy in Albert Park, which has unique circuit characteristics, as it is only a
semi-permanent facility.

It was the very first race finish in Australia for Red Bull’s reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel, who started from pole position after driving the fastest-ever lap of Melbourne in qualifying and concluded: “We have to make some compliments to Pirelli.”

Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Paul Hembery said: “What a fantastic race! Australia had
everything: the quickest lap of Melbourne ever seen in qualifying, plenty of on-track
battles, close competition, and some thrilling overtaking manoeuvres. At the end of it we
have three drivers from different teams standing on the podium, all of whom performed
outstandingly. I think that the same can be said of our tyres too: we had no issues
whatsoever and the degradation was less than expected meaning that most drivers –
including the top three – chose a two-stop strategy, as we had predicted. We also saw a
wide spread of strategies ranging from one stops to three, giving the teams the
opportunity to think creatively about their race management. I’d like to thank all the
teams and drivers for their support as we built up to our race debut and we hope that the
action today has rewarded their faith in us. I’d also like to thank all our people at Pirelli:
this exciting start has only been made possible by their unstinting hard work since our
agreement was confirmed just nine months ago in June. We’re not about to rest on our
laurels though: we’re already thinking ahead now to the next race in Malaysia, which will
provide us with a new and different challenge.”

PIRELLI PIT STOP SUMMARY

Below is a summary of all the pit stops made at the Australian Grand Prix and the tyres
changed. The hard tyre was the prime in Australia and the soft tyre was the option.

Lap 11 – Webber pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 12 – Alonso pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 13 – Massa pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 13 – Barrichello pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 14 – Vettel pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 14 – Di Resta pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 14 – D’Ambrosio pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 15 – Buemi pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 15 – Heidfeld pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 16 – Hamilton pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 16 – Petrov pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 16 – Rosberg pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 16 – Kobayashi pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 16 – Sutil pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 16 – Trulli pits from hard to soft tyre
Lap 17 – Button pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 17 – Alguersari pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 17 – Kovalainen pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 17 – Schumacher pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 18 – Glock pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 19 – Button pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 19 – Glock pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 23 – Perez pits from hard to soft tyre
Lap 23 – Barrichello pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 26 – Webber pits from hard to soft tyre
Lap 27 – Alonso pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 28 – Barrichello pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 29 – Buemi pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 30 – Heidfeld pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 31 – Massa pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 32 – Kobayashi pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 35 – Alguersuari pits from hard to hard tyre
Lap 36 – Vettel pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 36 – Hamilton pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 36 – Petrov pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 36 – Di Resta pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 37 – Button pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 37 – Sutil pits from hard to hard tyre
Lap 38 – D’Ambrosio pits from hard to hard tyre
Lap 40 – Barrichello pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 41 – Webber pits from soft to soft tyre
Lap 42 – Alonso pits from soft to hard tyre
Lap 48 – Massa pits from hard to soft tyre