Force India's relatively slack pace in the second round of qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix raised speculation that the team was deliberately trying to avoid making it through to the top ten pole position shoot-out.
As crazy as that might sound, it actually makes complete sense. Anyone who qualifies in the top ten has to start the race on the same set of tyres on which they set their fastest Q2 time, and local hero Sergio Perez confirmed that they wanted to avoid that at all costs.
“We had the pace to go into Q3 with the hypersoft tyres, but we didn’t think it was worth the risk to start on those tyres," he said afterwards. "We knew it would be hard to make it into the top 10 on the ultrasofts, but starting on a harder compound should give us an advantage tomorrow.
"We basically chose a better strategy over grid position," he admitted. “I am confident about our chances tomorrow. We believe our strategy is the correct one and that we can move forward in the race.”
Perez' admission is likely to reopen the debate about the current qualifying format, where strategy is impacting the on-track action with teams holding back or deciding not to take part in Q2 for strategic reasons.
"We chose to play the long game in today’s qualifying session being well aware that it’s the final result tomorrow that counts," confirmed team principal Otmar Szafnauer.
"We’ve seen very high degradation on the hypersoft tyres during practice and we were keen to avoid starting the race on them," Szafnauer explained.
"We ran the harder compounds, knowing that it would be more difficult to make Q3, but also aware that it should help us in the race.
"As we didn’t progress to Q3, both cars will start the race with a free choice of tyres," Szafnauer added. "When the strategies play out tomorrow, we hope to move into the top ten and score good points."
As a result of the team's qualifying gambit, Perez will now start Sunday's race from 13th place on the grid. The team was denied its intended lock-out of row six by a late improvement for Fernando Alonso which had bumped the McLaren up into 12th place, splitting the two Force Indias.
“My only regret is that Fernando is ahead of me," Perez admitted. "I lacked a bit of grip in the final part of my Q2 lap and he was able to be ahead of me on hypersofts."
Perez' team mate Esteban Ocon confirmed Perez' comments about Force India's approach to qualifying at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
"We went into qualifying knowing that we really didn’t want to start the race on the hypersoft tyres," he said. "That’s why we ran on the harder compound during Q2.
"P11 is an interesting place to start the race," he said. "Being P11 means I can choose my tyres for the start of the race and we have more flexibility with our strategy.
"We could have been higher up the grid if we had used the hypersofts, but I am happy with the way we approached the session," he insisted. "I hope our approach to qualifying will pay us back tomorrow."
Force India's tactics mean that Renault and Sauber were able to get both their cars into the top ten - but they will now have to start on the shorter-lived hypers.
"It’s going to be a big fight tomorrow against the Renaults and the Saubers, but they will be starting on hypersofts and they should run a different strategy compared to us," said Ocon. "Let’s see how things play out tomorrow."
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