Hamilton and Rosberg select same tyres for showdown

2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will go into their championship-deciding race weekend in Abu Dhabi with the same tyre selection.

The two Mercedes drivers have both chosen seven sets of the ultra-soft tyres plus four sets of softs and two super-softs for the season finale at Yas Marina.

Rivals Red Bull have again erred on the firmed side of the selection, taking five sets of softs and one fewer of the ultra-softs. Ferrari have split their choices between the two.

Nico Hulkenberg is the only driver in the field who has chosen eight sets of the softest available ultra-softs. Drivers must use at least one set of soft or super-soft tyres during the race.

2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix tyre selections

DriverTeamTyres
Lewis HamiltonMercedes
Nico RosbergMercedes
Sebastian VettelFerrari
Kimi RaikkonenFerrari
Felipe MassaWilliams
Valtteri BottasWilliams
Daniel RicciardoRed Bull
Max VerstappenRed Bull
Nico HulkenbergForce India
Sergio PerezForce India
Kevin MagnussenRenault
Jolyon PalmerRenault
Daniil KvyatToro Rosso
Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso
Marcus EricssonSauber
Felipe NasrSauber
Fernando AlonsoMcLaren
Jenson ButtonMcLaren
Pascal WehrleinManor
Esteban OconManor
Romain GrosjeanHaas
Esteban GutierrezHaas

2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    11 comments on “Hamilton and Rosberg select same tyres for showdown”

    1. Oh, I wasn’t aware that we were going to see the Ultrasoft again this year.
      Let’s keep our fingers crossed for the tyres to provide at least some excitement, because this track is a basket case.

      1. Yes the U/S is a faint ray of hope. The track is the worst on the calendar by a margin.

    2. Did Nico ask for Lewis’s tyre choice before making a decision in a similar way to checking what Lewis was doing in Brazil before the race start?

      1. Sounds like a heavily loaded question, but if you’re interested in an actual reply:
        The teams chose the tyres for their drivers. It is possible that the drivers are involved in the process, but thus far, the tyre allocations at Mercedes were either identical or almost identical with the exception of one set of tyres destined to be used for comparative runs on Friday, so that they always (?)* went into qualifying with the same tyre allocation.

        *The one exception I can think of is the Austrian GP, where Hamilton went into the weekend with one additional set of soft tyres, which he saved for the race (due to unexpectedly low track temperatures in which the soft tyres turned out to perform better than the other compounds).

        1. My joke was going to be that, as pictured above, Nico and Lewis are seen here arm wrestling over tires, having chosen the same set. The loser of the match will have no tires for Abu Dhabi.

      2. Pretty embarrassing to lose the WDC to a guy who copies your set up….

        1. The two of them share Set-Ups and this has occurred mostly equally during their years as team-mates. This year off the top of my head Lewis has definitely copied Nico’s set-up in Spain and Austria and possibly in Singapore as well. Nico has copied Lewis’s set up in Mexico, Britain. If you take out Singapore for Lewis and Britain for Nico as they both missed a whole practice session it seems as though their copying is very close. Also it is something both drivers have admitted to doing in the past to close the gap to one another.

        2. You mean like Lewis had to in Singapore?

    3. I’m a little surprised how many sets of the hardest compound of the weekend (Soft) have been chosen. All drivers have at least three sets of that compound. I was expecting at least one driver with only one set.

      1. The supersoft wasn’t too useful last year, not durable enough for long stints (with the notable exception of Vettel, who ran the last 15 laps on them to take 4th), and not much faster than the soft tyres, either. Looks like the teams are expecting a similar situation as in Canada, where the supersoft was sidelined by most teams.

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