Top teams steer clear of hard tyres for Spain

Pirelli’s hard compound tyres are set to make their first appearance of the season in Spain on May 15, but many of teams - including Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams - have chosen to take the bare minimum of one set of the orange-marked rubber for their drivers.

As revealed by Pirelli, none of the 22 drivers on the grid has opted for more than two sets of the hard tyre, with teams dividing the majority of their 13-set allocation between the medium and soft rubber.

Ferrari and Haas appear to have gone for the most aggressive tyre strategy, with both teams selecting eight sets of the soft compound for the technical Barcelona track – one more than the likes of Mercedes, Williams and Red Bull.

The individual driver choices are shown below:

Under the 2016 regulations, Pirelli make three 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 in Spain are the hard, medium and soft - to take their weekend allocation to 13.