08/07/2018
NEWS STORY
The British Grand Prix came down to a tense strategic battle between Ferrari and Mercedes, after two safety cars in the closing stages of the race turned it into a pair of final sprints.
Ferrari and Mercedes made different strategic choices under the first safety car, with Ferrari opting for a second stop to put their drivers onto soft tyres: the softest compound available.
Meanwhile, the Mercedes drivers stayed out on their medium tyres to maintain track position, making only one stop.
With extremely warm track temperatures close to 50 degrees centigrade, on one of the fastest and most demanding circuits of the year in terms of energy loadings, all the compounds demonstrated both performance and reliability at Pirelli's 350th grand prix.
Pirelli now remains at Silverstone for the latest two-day test in the 2019 tyre development programme, with Haas, Red Bull and Williams.
Mario Isola: "We saw a thrilling and unpredictable grand prix featuring a variety of different strategies and all three compounds being used. As well as the very different strategies based on soft and medium tyres that made up the first five places, Renault's Nico Hulkenberg made up six places by stopping once, from medium to hard. The race was obviously affected by safety cars that put many of the pre-planned strategies into question, but all the drivers were able to fight hard from start to finish on every compound at one of the season's most demanding circuits. This culminated in a thrilling finale that perfectly showcased the spectacular nature of Formula 1, at Pirelli's 350th grand prix."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Silverstone, here.