Pirelli has decided against taking its soft tyre compound to this weekend’s Bahrain grand prix.
Before the season began, F1’s official tyre supplier announced that it would take its hard and soft tyres to the island Kingdom.
"This is designed to ensure plenty of speed in qualifying coupled with the durability needed for the race," Pirelli said in a pre-season statement.
But the Italian marque has now announced that, in fact, the hard and medium compound tyres will be raced this weekend.
The news follows the Chinese grand prix, where Pirelli was heavily criticised when the soft compound lasted only a few laps at the Shanghai circuit.
Pirelli said on Monday that "tyre degradation (is) expected to be reasonably high (in Bahrain), which is why the two hardest compounds of the range have been nominated."
Paul Hembery commented: "It’s one of the most demanding tracks of the year for the tyres, mostly because of the high ambient and track temperatures."