In a nutshell: which tyres for the China GP?

Pirelli's primer for next weekend's China Grand Prix provides the skinny on the compounds which will be in use at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Shanghai imposes unique and quite high demands on the tyres, which has led to close racing as well as plenty of overtaking in the past.

But the weather can also never be predicted, ranging from bright sunshine to heavy rain: sometimes in the same weekend.

This will have a significant effect on tyre behaviour and strategy, as less degradation for this season theoretically means fewer pit stops.

Last year, the winner stopped twice during the 56-lap race, although most drivers did a three-stopper.

Head of car racing Mario Isola:

"We’re bringing the middle selection of compounds, but we expect teams to use mainly soft and supersoft, depending of course on the unpredictable weather: especially as the allocation is just two sets of medium.

"In the past, there has been some graining in China due to the long straights followed by tight corners, but we’ve seen in Barcelona testing that graining is generally reduced this year, so it will be good to have that confirmed.

"In case of wet and possibly cool conditions, we will supply wet weather tyres in a different compound, with the target of giving the drivers more grip."

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