Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsPirelli

Pirelli rules out tyre failures in FP1

Pirelli has confirmed none of the failures suffered in FP1 by Williams and Renault were caused by the tyres.

Felipe Massa went off under braking at Turn 6 with a left rear puncture, before later rejoining the track and suffering a second puncture of the same tyre on the long back straight. Those problems were soon followed by Kevin Magnussen appearing on the same straight with a broken left rear suspension and deflated tyre. On each occasion the soft tyres were being used.

The session was red flagged while the track was cleared of debris, with Pirelli undertaking investigations to determine the cause of the problems and ruling out any issue with the tyres ahead of FP2.

“After full investigation and full sharing with the team, we confirm that no one of the failures occurred to both Williams and Renault during FP1 are tyre related,” Pirelli said.

Magnussen’s problem saw the Renault driver ruled out of FP2, while Massa was able to run during the afternoon session. Massa himself said at the end of FP1 that Williams believed bodywork was the cause of his failures.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.