Out on a new set of
ultrasoft tyres after a brief break for a Virtual Safety Car, the result of Romain Grosjean beaching his Haas in the gravel, Vettel went quickest and Hamilton went even quicker.
McLaren duo Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, plus Williams» Lance Stroll and Felipe Massa, have the most aggressive strategies of all — each having nine sets of
ultrasoft tyres at their disposal.
Verstappen, fresh from signing a new Red Bull deal, finished fourth fastest ahead of Felipe Massa, who set his time on
the ultrasoft tyres, Kimi Raikkonen and Stoffel Vandoorne.
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.
Not exact matches
In Q2, both Red Bulls did their best time on the supersoft
tyre rather than the
ultrasoft, meaning they'll start the race on the theoretically more durable compound than those around them, which could be interesting.
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.
Pirelli have revealed the drivers»
tyre choices for the Chinese Grand Prix with Mercedes splitting their softt and
ultrasoft choices.
Although Pirelli have brought the hardest
tyres to Spain, Sergio Perez reckons they should have gone the other way, all the way to the
ultrasofts.