British GP: Pirelli says Sergio Perez's tyre blow not a delamination

Perez brought out the red flag after 13 minutes of running on Saturday morning when his left rear tyre failed while running through Copse corner.

With debris from the tyre littering the track, officials had no option but to stop running so the track could be cleared.

Although the incident follows a run of delaminations this year, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery insisted that the Perez incident was totally unrelated - and was a more standard puncture.

"It was a cut in the sidewall, which is in the direction of rotation," he told AUTOSPORT. "It is a classic unfortunate tyre deflation. Whatever it was went in, and then came out again."

Hembery said it was too early to judge what caused the cut, and only a track inspection later would highlight if it had been caused by a kerb or debris.

"It could be interference, or maybe something on a kerb. It's something we need to look at," he said. "But it's quite clear as the cut is in a rotational direction, so at least it's not a delamination."

Hembery insisted that the incident was totally unrelated to the new bonding process that Pirelli has introduced for its rear tyres this year - and stated that the Perez incident would have happened even if he had been running last year's specification of rubber.

"It's completely independent of anything that has happened before," he said.