Pirelli expecting ‘three to four’ stops in Malaysia

Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembrey has said he is expecting teams to have to make more pitstops in Malaysia than they did in Australia.

The majority of drivers stopped two or three times in Australia two weeks ago. Hembrey said that while Pirelli was pleased with its debut, it was expecting much more difficult conditions at Sepang for his tires.

"We were absolutely thrilled by our grand prix debut in Australia," Hembrey said. "But we're aware that Malaysia should be a very different proposition, with higher temperatures and increased degradation. We said all along that we would be seeing two to three pit stops in Australia, but in Malaysia I think that figure is likely to increase to three to four. They say that it's never a question of if it rains at Sepang but when, so the performance of our wet tires could be crucial this weekend and we're certainly looking forward to seeing them out on track."

Hembrey also confirmed that teams would be allocated an extra two sets of tires on Friday, with Pirelli confirming that one set would be an 'experimental hard compound' that could be used at circuits such as Turkey in the future.

"The teams will have two extra sets of slick tires available to them during Friday's free practice sessions for evaluation purposes. With testing not allowed during the season, this gives us a valuable opportunity to gather more data and feedback, while it also gives the teams an interesting taste of what could be coming in the future."