Pirelli gets 2013 Formula One Season Underway in Australia

18 Mar, 2013

Finally the waiting is over, with the teams getting to sample Pirelli’s new 2013-specification compounds for the first time in competition during the opening two free practice sessions in Melbourne.

The P Zero White medium and P Zero Red supersoft tires are nominated this weekend, with all the compounds softer and faster than their 2012 equivalents. The fastest times in the first and second free practice sessions comfortably exceeded the benchmarks established last year, underlining the significant steps forward made with the latest P Zero tires. Ambient temperatures peaked at 28 degrees centigrade (during the first session) with Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel setting fastest time of the day towards the end of free practice two on the supersoft compound.

Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “The teams were able to try out our tires within their proper working range for the first time, so as usual they made the most of the opportunity to assess the behavior of their cars in representative conditions on different fuel loads. The medium tire showed plenty of consistency, just as we expected, while the drivers also benefited from the rapid warm-up of the supersoft. With AlbertPark not being a permanent facility, the track started off ‘green’ but lap times rapidly improved as more rubber was laid down. From what we can see of the degradation so far, we’d expect the majority of the teams to stop twice during the race, with some of the faster cars maybe trying three stops. As anticipated, we saw a performance gap of around a second between the two compounds here, which leaves the door open for plenty of strategy.”

FASTEST TIRE OF THE DAY

FP1: FP2:
S. Vettel 1.27.211 Medium Used 1. S. Vettel 1.25.908 Supersoft New
F. Massa 1.27.289 Medium Used 2. M. Webber 1.26.172 Supersoft New
F. Alonso 1.27.547 Medium Used 3. N. Rosberg 1.26.322 Supersoft New

TIRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY:

Supersoft Medium Intermediate Wet
Kms driven * 1,612 4,242 N/C N/C
Sets used overall ** 26 49 N/C N/C
Highest number of laps** 18 26 N/C N/C
* The above number gives the total amount of kilometers driven in FP1 and FP2today, all drivers combined.
** Per compound, all drivers combined.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU:

Max. g-force braking (longitudinal force): Turn 3 @ -4.5 g
Max. g-force cornering (lateral force): Turn 11 @ 4.1g

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