STRATEGY CORNER: What does Pirelli expect from the Singapore Grand Prix?

Despite the increase of the pit lane speed limit, Formula One's sole tyre supplier Pirelli struggles to expect anything other than a single-stop strategy at today's Singapore Grand Prix.

Despite his crash on Friday, George Russell managed to bounce back on Saturday to secure pole position for the 16th running of the Singapore Grand Prix.

It was the Mercedes driver’s seventh career pole, his second this year, following on from Montreal, where he went on to win the race. Russell’s best time was a 1m 29.158s, set on his second Q3 run, seven thousandths quicker than his earlier lap that would have also been good enough for pole. This is Mercedes’ fourth Singapore pole, its first since 2018 and its 143rd in total.

Commenting on qualifying, Pirelli's Head of Motorsport, Mario Isola added: “A very closely contested qualifying session, with Mercedes particularly brilliant taking a possibly surprising but absolutely well-deserved pole with Russell.

"It was interesting to see a remarkable balance across all three segments of qualifying: 15 drivers within eight-tenths in Q1, ten within less than half a second in Q2, and the top ten all in under 1’30” in Q3. Russell’s pole was a record, 367 thousandths quicker than last year although in line with our pre-event simulations.

"Today the track improved significantly during FP3 and at the start of qualifying, then stabilised in the final stages. The C5 offered a good level of performance even on the second or third timed lap, and even more so on an actual second attempt."

Pirelli has made no changes since last year for the dry weather compounds at the Marina Bay circuit, with the C3 as Hard, the C4 as Medium and the C5 as Soft.

As for the tyres, drivers only used the medium and the softs across the practice session and qualifying. Following the heavily-disrupted second practice session, the third free practice session saw the teams work mainly on preparing for qualifying, even if some drivers also did several longer runs to get some feedback on tyre behaviour in a race situation.

Seven teams used one set of Medium and one of Soft with both drivers. In fact, there was one team that used the hard compound, with Aston Martin having done their usual scrubbing-in lap on a set of the white-walled tyres. Mercedes and Williams only ran the Soft compound. In qualifying red was the only colour seen on track, with the C5 doing all the work.

Pirelli expects that the majority of drivers will most likely pursue a one-stop strategy at Singapore. Although the increase in pit-lane speed, from 60 to 80 km/h, makes a two-stop slightly more appealing, track position remains vital at the Marina Bay Circuit, and drivers will most likely manage their tyres rather than exploiting the benefits of fresh tyres.

The Milan-based manufacturer believes that all three compounds could be used today even if the soft compound suffered a relatively big drop of performance after a single flying lap.

"Everyone has one set of Mediums and one of Hards, but the Soft could also play a role, either at the start or at the end of the race. The greater grip offered by the C5 could be exploited at the start to gain vital positions on a track where overtaking is always difficult, although now less so than in the past," concluded Isola.