2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - Sunday

THE RACE TYRE STORY

• Max Verstappen led a Red Bull one-two from first on the grid, after starting on the Cinturato Green intermediate tyre, moving onto the P Zero Yellow medium, and then finishing the race with a 12-lap stint on the P Zero Red soft. Exactly the same strategy was used by his teammate Sergio Perez.
• Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc instigated this strategy by stopping before the Red Bulls, but was forced into an extra pit stop after hitting the wall in the closing stages from third. He recovered to finish sixth.
• All the other drivers stopped only once (from intermediate to medium) with the exception of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Haas driver Mick Schumacher.
• The race started with ambient temperatures of 14 degrees centigrade and track temperatures of 16 degrees. Earlier rain meant that the track was damp when the grand prix got underway, with all the drivers starting on the intermediate before a dry line emerged, allowing the drivers to switch to slick tyres. 

HOW THE COMPOUNDS MADE THE DIFFERENCE

• HARD C2: Ricciardo was the only driver to use the hard during the race, with this compound not ideally suited to today’s cool temperatures. 
• MEDIUM C3: The most commonly-selected slick compound in the race, it was the key tyre of today’s race and was used by all the drivers for long stints, showing consistency and no significant drop-off in performance.
• SOFT C4: Four drivers ran this for the final stint, including the two leading Red Bulls, with Verstappen using it to claim the extra point for fastest lap. It played an important role when the strategy became a two-stopper, in order to secure the fastest lap.
• INTERMEDIATE: Selected by all the drivers at the start, with Ricciardo being the first one to get off them on lap 16 – when the crossover point had been reached for slicks. The intermediate performed well also on a drying track over a number of laps.

  
“At the start of the race the intermediates worked well over a reasonably long stint, as was expected. I was a little bit surprised though that everyone chose the medium rather than the soft once the track had dried, in the cool and still damp conditions, but they were obviously thinking about going all the way to the end; and that’s exactly what many of the drivers did. Ferrari came up with an interesting strategy, which was then copied by Red Bull, to go for the fastest lap with the soft tyre at the end. The medium showed impressive adaptability over long runs, because the rain on Friday meant that the teams just had an hour on Saturday morning to understand it, with a maximum run of only around 20 laps possible. Despite that limited information, we saw long runs of 40 laps with no issues. Well done to Red Bull, but also to the fantastic home crowd here at Imola, which always shows such passionate support.”

• ART Grand Prix driver Theo Pourchaire took his second win of the season in today’s Formula 2 Feature Race from seventh on the grid, starting on the P Zero Purple supersoft – which hadn’t been run before today – before making an early switch to the P Zero Yellow medium under the safety car. Nine drivers chose the alternative strategy, running the medium for a long first stint before moving to the supersoft at the end. Prema’s Jehan Daruvala, on mediums, inherited the lead after the supersoft runners pitted but it was championship leader Felipe Drugovich who held onto the mediums for longest, heading into the pits from the lead with just two laps to go under another safety car. He rejoined in P10, with Pourchaire taking the win under safety car conditions. The biggest challenge for all the drivers today was understanding how long they could run the supersoft, as there was no prior data on this – with the longest race stint selected on it being 10 laps at the finish.
• Trident driver Roman Stanek took his first Formula 3 win in a Feature Race that was interrupted by three safety cars, with all the drivers finishing the race on the P Zero Yellow medium tyres nominated for this weekend. Stanek, who started from second on the grid, managed his tyres perfectly to pass Prema’s Oliver Bearman on the penultimate lap. The track was damp as the race started, which prompted several drivers to opt for the Cinturato wet tyre to try and make some early gains. They eventually all pitted for the slicks as the track dried, with some able to take advantage of safety cars to minimise the time loss. Understanding the grip available was the key to success, with Prema’s Arthur Leclerc mastering the conditions to claim fifth at the finish from 21st on the grid.