Drivers sparing on 2018 F1 hard tyre debut at British GP

Just five Formula 1 drivers have opted for more than one set of the new Pirelli hard tyres for the British Grand Prix weekend, while Max Verstappen has picked the fewest sets of soft tyres.

With Silverstone traditionally seen as the toughest circuit on tyres on the F1 race calendar, Pirelli has selected for its hardest compound options having announced the new-for-2018 super-hard won’t be used this year.

With the hard compound likely to have its only outing of the year at the British Grand Prix the blue-banded tyre has been picked sparingly by all F1 drivers with only Mercedes’s Valtteri Bottas, Red Bull duo Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, Williams’s Sergey Sirotkin and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg picking two sets of hards with the rest of the grid taking the minimum of one set.

Verstappen has selected the fewest of the yellow-banded soft tyres with seven with all of his front-running rivals selecting eight sets of softs.

Ferrari, McLaren, Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen have opted for the most medium compound tyres with four sets each while Hulkenberg heads to Silverstone with just a single set of mediums.

The British Grand Prix completes the triple-header of F1 races following on from the French and Austrian rounds and hosts round 10 of the 2018 F1 world championship.

Hamilton has secured four consecutive victories at his home race and drew level with Jim Clark and Alain Prost for most career wins at the British event on five wins each. Therefore, Hamilton has the opportunity to continue his winning run while creating history to take the outright record for most career wins at the British F1 round.

The British Grand Prix takes place at Silverstone on July 6-8.

Yellow, White and a bit of Ice Blue. Time to unveil the #Fit4F1 orders placed for the #BritishGP! https://t.co/KlEyg57ZCu pic.twitter.com/mFjgoRPYHF

— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) June 26, 2018