Drivers face hard tyre struggle in the race

Drivers will want to use the hard tyre as little as possible during the Indian Grand Prix.

With the hardest tyre in Pirelli’s range offering little grip on the slippery circuit, drivers may try to get away with using it for just one lap in the race.

Longest stint comparison

• Drivers had enough trouble getting the soft tyres to work on the low-grip track – the hard tyres proved very difficult to use. Felipe Massa said: “Probably the hards are too hard for this track and it would have been possible to run the same compounds we had in Korea in two weeks ago, because the track surface is very smooth.”
• Kamui Kobayashi added: “With the hard ones you cannot really drive here, while with the soft tyres it was still not easy to heat them up and get them to work properly, but there is no comparison to the hard ones.”
• Pirelli’s Paul Hembery admitted the tyre was too hard for the circuit at the moment: “Working out exactly how the tyres degrade is tricky because the track is still cleaning, having started off very dusty before clear racing lines emerged. This dust has a significant effect on tyre performance, as the tyres can grain due to sliding and rear wheelspin. As the performance gap between the soft tyre and the hard tyre is notable here, the key to race strategy will be getting the softs to last for as long as possible.”
• Hembery added he expects a “two to three stop strategy” for most drivers in the race.
• At this stage it seems likely drivers will spend very little time on the hard tyres in the race. Hembery said strategies could be similar to those seen in Germany, where Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa only used the harder tyres for one lap at the end of the race.

This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint:

Ultimate lap times

An ultimate lap is a driver’s fastest three sector times combined.

• Lewis Hamilton was quickest in the first session but slipped to fourth in the afternoon. He said: “We looked quick this morning. This afternoon, however, I had a problem with the driveshaft ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ it felt like it was causing some wear and tear so it prompted me to end the session a little early. We?óÔé¼Ôäóll fit a new gearbox for tomorrow, so the car will hopefully start behaving a bit better. That should make things closer at the front.”

Complete practice times

• Michael Schumacher had a problematic second session: “This morning, I was happy with the balance of the car,” he said. “However this afternoon was more challenging for us. We weren’t really able to get into working properly for various reasons, including the red flag, and therefore tomorrow we need to work on the set-up for both qualifying and the race.”
• The Renaults were eighth and 11th, which Bruno Senna said was in line with expectations: “Both cars were in the positions they should be and the track looks like it could be an ally for our car.”

Speed trap

• Sergio Perez topped the times and, as in Korea, the two Toro Rossos showed excellent performance through the speed trap.

2011 Indian Grand Prix