14/06/2018
NEWS STORY
The Russian Grand Prix, scheduled to take place at the end of September, will mark the fifth race this season where Pirelli has opted to skip a compound.
As in the preceding race, Singapore, the hypersoft, ultrasofts and softs will be used, Pirelli skipping the red-banded supersofts.
One set of soft and one set of ultrasoft must be available for the race and one of them must be used at some point in the race, while the hypersoft is the assigned tyre for Q3 in qualifying.
This year's Grand Prix is taking place considerably later in the year than in previous seasons, though 2017 marked the first occasion on which the (then) softest compound was used at the Sochi Autodrom.
Last year's race was won by Valtteri Bottas who was on a one-stop strategy, starting on the ultrasofts before eventually switching to supersofts. Of the first ten finishers, only one driver (Felipe Massa 9th) opted for a two-stop strategy. Indeed, the first eight were on exactly the same strategy of used ultras and then new supers as the winner.
Confirmed Tyre Compounds
| Grand Prix | Hypersoft | Ultrasoft | Supersoft | Soft | Medium | Hard | Brutal |
| Australia | X | X | X | ||||
| Bahrain | X | X | X | ||||
| China | X | X | X | ||||
| Azerbaijan | X | X | X | ||||
| Spain | X | X | X | ||||
| Monaco | X | X | X | ||||
| Canada | X | X | X | ||||
| France | X | X | X | ||||
| Austria | X | X | X | ||||
| Britain | X | X | X | ||||
| Germany | X | X | X | ||||
| Hungary | X | X | X | ||||
| Singapore | X | X | X | ||||
| Russia | X | X | X |