Pirelli reveals Spanish tyre allocations

Pirelli has revealed the tyre allocations requested by each driver ahead of the forthcoming Spanish Grand Prix.

Under revised 2016 regulations, each driver is free to make personalised selections from the three dry tyre compounds made available by Pirelli which, for the Circuit de Catalunya, comprise the hard, medium and soft options - the first time this combination has been supplied after four rounds where the medium to supersoft range was on offer.

The Spanish options were made available six weeks ago, eight weeks before the event itself, and, under the new regulations, teams will have to ensure that one set of hards and one set of mediums remain available for the race, with the stipulation that at least one of these is used on raceday. Each driver will also have to save one set of softs for Q3, with the top ten handing these back after the pole position shoot-out. The teams are then free to choose the ten remaining sets according to their drivers' wishes, making up 13 sets total for the weekend.

Ferrari and newcomers Haas have opted for the greatest number of soft sets, with eight apiece for each of their drivers. While both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen are joined by Esteban Gutierrez in pairing these with a single set of hards and four sets of mediums, Romain Grosjean has included an additional set of hard rubber in his choice.

World championship leader Nico Rosberg and Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton have both gone for identical allocations, with a single set of hards accompanied by five sets of mediums and seven sets of softs, while Sauber goes to the other extreme by requesting only five sets of softs for Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson, who will also have six sets of mediums and two sets of softs to hand.

With a lot of pre-season preparation carried out at the Barcelona circuit, teams will have a good idea of how their cars are likely to use the various compounds, leading to little differentiation between team-mates. Renault's Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer have differed in their choice of hard and medium compounds, however, while Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz have made similarly differing requests at Toro Rosso.

.@pirellisport reveals #SpanishGP tyre choices for team and drivers... Ferrari most aggressive with soft allocation pic.twitter.com/v5NjCV9Abx-- Crash.net F1 (@crash_F1) May 3, 2016