Mercedes on the top with remaining tyres
Pirelli announced how many sets of tyres different teams saved up for today’s Belgian GP. Mercedes stand out with its high number of mediums and softs while rival Red Bull and Ferrari are on the edge with the harder compounds if tyre degradation remains high in the race.
The Italian tyre manufacturer had heating problems over the last years at Spa because the weather is usually rather ‘moderate’ in the wooded valley surrounded by undulating hills. Pirelli, therefore, reacted to the problem with an aggressive tyre choice and brought the trio of supersofts, softs and mediums for this year,
However, due to the unexpected high temperatures, teams which ordered the most sets of supersofts had a hard task to store a good number of mediums and softs for the race. The two latter compounds are expected to be the preferred race tyres as the supersofts suffered such a high degradation that it only allowed up to three laps in race configuration.
Mercedes drivers saved up one more set of mediums and softs to Red Bull and Ferrari drivers. If today’s race demands three stops, the latter drivers have to use supersofts in one of their stints.
Max Verstappen and both Force India drivers will complete one stint on supersofts anyway as they will start the race on that compound - due to setting their fastest times on that set of tyres in Q2 on Saturday.
