Pirelli expects battle between Mercedes and Red Bull: 'Strategy makes difference'

Mercedes was the fastest team around the track in FP1, but in FP2 it was Red Bull Racing with Max Verstappen. The track was very different during the two practice sessions, as there was still a lot of dirt on the track in the first practice. Pirelli boss Mario Isola looks back on Friday.

"The drivers had to deal with an extremely ‘green’ and dirty track this morning that generated some abrasion and graining, especially on the front and rear-left with the soft compound, but there was a high degree of evolution all day as more rubber was laid down and the times greatly improved", Isola begins on the website of Pirelli. According to Isola, we will see mostly one-stops during the race.

"A lot of the running today took place on the soft tyre, especially in the morning, as the drivers wanted to preserve their allocation of medium tyres for the more representative conditions of FP2, and also to keep two sets of this compound for tomorrow, with some drivers likely to try to get through Q2 on the medium and opt for a one-stop strategy in the race."

'Fierce battle up front'

Isola expects the battle between Red Bull and Mercedes to be exciting during the race. "We expect further track evolution tomorrow and we’ve seen that the battle at the front is extremely close in terms of race pace, so this could be a grand prix where strategy makes a particular difference.”