“Difficult to determine the transition point” – Mario Isola. from Pirelli

Lando Norris from the McLaren F1 Team took his first pole position at Russian Grand Prixafter Mclaren made the transition point from intermediates to slicks with perfection on Autodrome in Sochi. It was also McLaren’s first Pole since 2012.

As the third free practice session was canceled due to heavy rain that did not lead to a medical helicopter, qualifying began on a very humid track. The drivers mostly dared to ride the green intermediate tires, Fernando Alonso was the only driver who started on full rain tires. Intermediate was the right option for qualifying one and two as the track surface took a long time to dry.

Qualifying three was hectic though, with Mclaren, Scuderia Ferrari and Williams races to judge the important transition point from the intermediate to the red soft tire with perfection. This resulted in a top 3 from Norris, Carlos Sainz Jr and George Russell for the race on Sunday.

An important factor for the Sunday race is that every driver has a free choice of tires, after all, qualifying two times were set on the intermediates.

Looking at the race where the weather forecast is not yet certain, a complete dry run is the most likely one-stop strategy, unless there is a safety car or some other incident that could allow a tire change. The preferred option for a dry race would be to start on the middle C4 tire and switch to the hard C3, but Verstappen who start at the back can start on the C3 and run deep into the race.

Pirellis Head of F1 and Car Racing Mario Isola pointed out that the crossover was difficult to judge due to the grippy surface and that there could be a variety of strategies on Sunday.

“Qualifying was tricky, with a grippy surface that took a long time to dry and made it difficult to determine the transition point until it was finally dry enough for slicks right at the end of Q3. Tomorrow’s conditions appear dry, meaning the teams will have to rely on the data collected on Friday, with one less training session than usual.

“All drivers have a free choice of tires at the start, which means they should be able to use the optimal one-stop strategy. With a few fast drivers starting from behind, who might try something different, and a slightly different top 3 on the grid, it should be a very fascinating race. “