The combination of further car development and
softer tyre compounds could see lap times tumble
Yes, Canada is often one of the best races of the season and yes, we always see
the softest tyre compounds brought there.
Day one concluded on Tuesday with F2's dominant championship leader Leclerc setting the fastest time for Ferrari, using Pirelli's
soft tyre compound to put in a 1:17.746.
Not exact matches
The pair ran long on their opening sets, although Hamilton chose to qualify and start the race on
soft compound tyres after a five - place penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change relegated him to ninth on the grid.
Now we've already got hard, medium,
soft, supersoft, and ultrasoft
tyres, with the new
compound set to be the
softest and grippiest of the lot.
But instead of calling what is currently the hard
tyre the super hard and then shifting all the names along one (making the new
compound the ultrasoft), for some reason Pirelli wants to call its new
soft tyre something new entirely.
A couple of weeks ago, Pirelli announced it was introducing a new
soft compound tyre for 2018 and wanted fans to name it.
This was somewhat less surprising - he was the earliest of the front runners to stop for the
soft compound tyres and he punished them pretty heavily, locking up a couple of times as he attempted to fend off Bottas.
However Bottas completed his Q2 run on the
soft compound tyre, meaning he'll be on a very different strategy to his rivals in the race, which should be interesting to watch unfold.
I've driven other Countaches and never experienced this before, and Harry says the car was nailed - on during his last European adventure, so we conclude with no evidence that the tread depth of the new Pirellis (made in evo 174 to the original tread pattern but with a much
softer compound) is too deep and they're wobbling around at speed like winter
tyres.
An extremely
soft compound sits around the inside of the
tyre and fills in any fissures resulting from glass, nails, or anything else that can cause a puncture.
The special
compound in winter
tyres allows it to remains
softer in low temperatures - offering more grip, better braking and precise handling.
From ninth, Gavin utilised
soft compound tyres to gain one more position, but further progress was proving tough