Verstappen and Mercedes have strategic advantage by Q2 choice

The Bahrain Grand Prix is by default a race where strategy plays an important role. Due to high tyre wear, teams have to think carefully about the tyres they are going to run on. The beginning of that strategy battle already started on Saturday during Q2. The two Mercedes drivers, Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly qualified for Q3 on mediums, which will give them an advantage in the race.

Because, Pirelli has calculated, the fastest strategy will be to start on the mediums. Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda tried this as well, but fell short in Q2, so they have free choice of tyres, which may help them in the race. Pirelli have analysed the data and a two-stop seems inevitable, but then the teams still have a lot of options.

"There is a big difference between the daytime and evening sessions, which made the calculations for strategy even more difficult. There are a number of possible choices, which in turn depends on each driver's available tyres. There were several teams who wanted to start on mediums in the top ten and four drivers are doing so today. This gives them more strategic options," acknowledged Mario Isola, Pirelli's top executive, in the saturday review of the Italian tyre manufacturer.

The fastest strategy will be a two-stopper from the yellow tyre, to the hardest white and then the last stint on the yellow tyre. For the drivers starting on the red C4 there are a lot of options, with Pirelli also indicating that the possibilities are extremely close. Enough to think about for the teams and enough for the fans to look forward to.