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Pirelli reveal driver tyre choices for Australia

08 Mar 2016

Pirelli have revealed the tyres that each driver has selected for the opening race of the season in Australia.

Interestingly, world champions Mercedes are one of just three teams (along with Sauber and Haas) to have differing strategies for each of their drivers, with Lewis Hamilton favouring an extra set of the soft tyres than team mate Rosberg. The German's choices meanwhile are identical to those selected by both Ferrari drivers.  

Elsewhere, several teams have opted to select seven sets of supersoft tyres, while only Manor have opted to pick more than two sets of medium tyres, with Rio Haryanto and Pascal Wehrlein going for four each.

The individual driver choices are shown below:

Under new-for-2016 regulations, Pirelli are now making three, rather than two, of their five dry-weather tyre compounds available at each event.

The Italian company allocates two sets of tyres for the race (only one of which must be used) and one set which can only be used in Q3 (the softest of the chosen three compounds).  Each driver is then able to choose 10 further sets of tyres from the three compounds - which for Australia are supersoft, soft and medium - to take their weekend allocation to 13.
 

Australia - selected tyre sets per driver
Driver Team Medium Soft Supersoft
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1 6 6
Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2 5 6
Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 2 5 6
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 2 5 6
Valtteri Bottas Williams 1 5 7
Felipe Massa Williams 1 5 7
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 2 4 7
Daniil Kvyat Red Bull 2 4 7
Kevin Magnussen Renault 1 5 7
Jolyon Palmer Renault 1 5 7
Nico Hulkenberg Force India 2 5 6
Sergio Perez Force India 2 5 6
Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 2 4 7
Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 2 4 7
Fernando Alonso McLaren 1 5 7
Jenson Button McLaren 1 5 7
Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1 6 6
Felipe Nasr Sauber 2 5 6
Pascal Wehrlein Manor 4 4 5
Rio Haryanto Manor 4 4 5
Romain Grosjean Haas 1 5 7
Esteban Gutierrez Haas 2 4 7