Two sets of hard tyres mandatory for Malaysia

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Pirelli has announced its nominations for the Malaysian Grand Prix, making two sets of hard tyres mandatory for the race.

Teams must select the tyres they would like to receive for flyaway races 14 weeks in advance of the race, with Pirelli providing nominations of three compounds from which to choose from. As part of each selection, Pirelli also picks one mandatory set of tyres for use in Q3 and two mandatory sets which must be available for the race, although only one of those sets must be used.

Pirelli has opted for the three hardest compounds in its range for the Malaysian Grand Prix due to the potential for high temperatures and the abrasive surface at Sepang. With the hard, medium and soft tyres nominated, teams must have one set of soft tyres available for use in Q3.

While Pirelli usually selects two sets of different compounds for the race, in Malaysia it has made the hard tyre a mandatory race tyre. As a result, teams must have two sets of hard tyres available for the race, of which only one must be used.

The selection is the third time this season the hardest three compounds have been nominated, with the hard, medium and soft tyres also in use in both Spain and Britain.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.