Pirelli allay fears of carnage in Belgium

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery has dismissed fears of a repeat of the shocking scenes recently witnessed at Silverstone this weekend.

In practice for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix, Pirelli suffered its first issues since the high-speed blowouts that caused a storm over the British race weekend and put drivers’ lives at risk.

At the Spa-Francorchamps circuit during second practice when the track was dry and speeds were high, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso both sustained punctures to the right-rear tyres of their cars.

Neither incident was spectacular, but naturally concerns have been raised in light of what occurred less than two months ago.

Hembery said: “It is a worry for the sport because we have to go out and find what it is.”

But asked specifically whether there could be a repeat of the horror show at Silverstone, he added: “It is completely different.”

With photographs of both the offending tyres in his hands, Hembery pointed to two puncture holes in Alonso’s tyre rubber.

As for Vettel, there was a long scar on a part of the surface before it materialised into a puncture further round, suggesting to Hembery the circuit itself has played an intrinsic part in the failures.

“It looks on the Red Bull as though something has been rubbing on the surface and then just cut through it,” explained Hembery.

“On the Ferrari there are two quite clear holes through the top of the tread. There’s not a lot we can do about that.

“So we have to go and look at the track and see what is between turns 13 (Fagnes) and 15 (Stavelot).”

Given what occurred in practice, Alonso said: “I don’t think it’s a similar problem to what we saw in Silverstone, maybe more of a random set of circumstances, but all the same, it needs careful analysis.”

The incident did not stop Vettel topping the timesheet with a lap of one minute 49.331secs.

That was six seconds faster than that set by Alonso in the first session in the inclement conditions. Vettel ultimately spearheaded a Red Bull one-two, with team-mate Mark Webber 0.059secs adrift.

The duo were head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the field, with Lotus’ Romain Grosjean third fastest but over eight 10ths of a second down.

Lewis Hamilton was 12th in his Mercedes and with three successive poles and a win in Hungary last time out to his name, Hamilton will be the man to beat in qualifying.