Verstappen on pole, Hamilton in mediums… who has the advantage?

In view of the renewed form of the Mercedes during the last Grands Prix and the content of the free practices where Verstappen was discreet on the track in Abu Dhabi, we could hardly imagine Red Bull be able to rise to the level of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton on a tour. And yet, thanks to a superb strategic move by the Red Bull team, Max Verstappen managed to climb to pole. His teammate Sergio Perez indeed offered him two big aspirations to allow the Dutchman to sign the 13th pole of his career, with a comfortable margin over his rival, seven-time world champion. 

The less good news for Verstappen, at least on paper, is that he will be equipped with Soft tires on the starting grid, a compound which grips the track more at the start than the Mediums with which Lewis Hamilton will start, but which degrades more quickly. The Dutchman therefore opts for a different strategy, which owes more to circumstances than to any deliberate decision.

At a press conference, the current leader of the championship (in terms of number of victories) confessed that going on soft tires was not initially planned. “I wanted to try to start on the Mediums, but I flattened my train in Q2. Afterwards, I also felt good on the softs on Friday during the race simulations. So it wasn't really a difficult decision to make to say, "OK, let's focus on the soft." For qualifying, we made the right decisions.”

After his flat performance on the Mediums in Q2, Max Verstappen had to qualify on Soft tires. Rubber on which he will start the race.
© Lars Baron/Getty Images)

Lewis Hamilton has not forgotten that his rival blocked his wheel in Q2 which forced him to put on soft tires. We are not safe from such a scenario happening again tomorrow at the first corner. “It's very rare for drivers to lock tires at turn 1, but if he really did lock his tires there, then who knows... blurted the Mercedes driver. But it will be very difficult to beat him. The start isn't too far from the first corner and it's on the Tendres, which usually give you four meters more or something like that. In an ideal world we were supposed to be on pole and we thought we had the pace, but they were fast in the end. »

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If the soft tires should logically allow the Red Bull driver to get off to a better start, Lewis Hamilton refuses to be too worried. “Maybe they know something we don't and this soft tire was their plan all along. We had a little more trouble on the soft tires for the long stints. Obviously it's going to be a little more difficult at the start with the medium tire compared to the soft but I think we have the right compound. We’ll see on Sunday.”

So what is the right strategy? Who has the advantage? Is it better to start in pole position but on a soft tire compound? Or be the hunter but set off with a more stable rubber that lasts longer? Only the truth of the trail will tell us. But count on the two aliens for each of their sides to make their respective strategies work. Join us at 13:30 p.m. on AUTOhebdo.fr to follow the outcome of the championship in live text.

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