Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola has explained how an overnight "reset" of the Hungaroring circuit could produce "unpredictable situations" at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc leads away from pole, with Oscar Piastri alongside. Lando Norris and George Russell occupy the second row, ahead of an unexpected all-Aston Martin row three.
However, the rain that fell over Budapest and the nearby track during the night means the field will be taking a relative step into the unknown when the 13th grand prix of the F1 season gets underway.
Speaking to media, including RacingNews365, after qualifying, Isola said his engineers commented that the left side of the grid, where Leclerc will start from, is "more grippy compared to the right side".
Unfortunately for the Ferrari driver, the 56-year-old also described how wet weather overnight would "reset" the surface of the new tarmac at the Hungaroring.
"This could create some unpredictable situations at the start of the race," he added.
Looking at the strategy options for the teams, Isola believes a two-stop approach will be the quickest to the chequered flag, but he has not ruled out the offset one-stopper.
"The strategy medium-hard-hard two-stop is still the quickest on paper, he explained. "But with two hards, we have only McLaren [one set scrubbed], Ferrari, Mercedes, Alpine and [Max] Verstappen...
"The only team with two medium is Sauber [Stake]. So, medium-hard-medium is also a possible strategy, but only Sauber has two sets of mediums, while all the others have only one set of mediums, one set of hards.
"For them, there is the possibility... I believe they are planning, maybe, to start with a one-stop strategy, with the idea of a one-stop medium-hard, and if it is not possible to achieve this one-stop strategy, they can fit softs at the end, and it is still a good strategy.
"If they decide, despite having one medium and one hard, to start the race with a two-stop strategy in mind, then soft-medium-hard is probably better, because you are quick at the beginning.
"You use the medium for the undercut - that is very powerful here - and then you have the last stint on the hard."
When asked for what time delta between the prime and alternate strategies, Isola highlighted a difference of around 10 seconds, but did concede that cooler conditions could reduce that gap.
His answer was provided on Saturday evening, and whilst it is significantly cooler on Sunday compared to earlier parts of the weekend, clear conditions, which would have further reduced the deficit, did not prevail.
"At the moment, a one-stop is more or less 10 seconds lower with the level of degradation that we measured [on Friday]," Isola stated.
"So if it is cooler and you are able to manage the tyre better, these 10 seconds could be less.
"That's why I believe that two stops is still the preferred choice, but we will see tomorrow the condition.
"If [Sunday] is cool, maybe it didn't rain, so you have a rubber on track, and the track evolution was quite high [on Friday and Saturday morning], there is the possibility to manage a one-stop strategy."
The various strategy options are further explained HERE, and the tyres available are shown below.
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