Pirelli revealed the tyre choices for the 2018 Formula 1 Russian GP with Mercedes drivers opting for the least number of hypersoft tyres among all the teams.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will only have seven sets of the pink-coloured tyres in the Russian GP at Sochi – the least among all the teams. Together with the seven sets of hypersoft, they will have four sets of ultrasoft and two each of the the soft compound.
It’s a split choice for the Ferrari drivers though, with Sebastian Vettel going for nine sets of hypersoft tyres along with McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne, Red Bull Racing, Racing Point Force India, Haas and Alfa Romeo Sauber drivers.
Vettel has gone for three sets of ultrasoft tyres and just the one of soft along with both Red Bulls, Charles Leclerc and Romain Grosjean. The rest of the drivers including Vandoorne, Kevin Magnussen, Marcus Ericsson and both Force Indias will have two each.
Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen has gone for eight sets of hypersoft tyres, along with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, Williams and Toro Rosso drivers. The Finn will have three sets of ultrasoft and two of soft, the same as Sergey Sirotkin and Brendon Hartley.
At the same time, Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly and Alonso have gone for three sets of soft and two of ultrasoft as their choices. Only Renault will have 10 sets of hypersoft tyres with Carlos Sainz opting for two sets of ultrasoft and one soft – opposite to Nico Hulkenberg.
The teams get 13 set of tyres for the weekend, with one set of the softest compound to be kept for use in Q3. After the completion of qualifying, the Top 10 drivers will have to return that set, while the other drivers can keep it for the race.
For the races, each driver has to keep one set each of the two harder compounds available for the weekend, while the rest 10 sets they are free to choose from the three available compounds for the particular drive.