Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli expects a two-stop strategy to be favoured by teams and drivers for the British Grand Prix in the event of a dry race.
The Silverstone circuit has recently been resurfaced but is gathering pace across the weekend and is continuously evolving and changing the behaviour of the tyres.
The Mercedes and Red Bull drivers will start on Medium tyres while the remainder of those inside the top 10 must start on Softs, in event of a dry race.
Those drivers in the lower half of the grid have free choice of starting compound should the forecast rain steer away from the circuit.
Due to the high levels of tyre wear often seen at Silverstone, a typical one-stop strategy has effectively been ruled out.
Pirelli believes the quickest strategy for the 52-lap grand prix is to run a Soft/Soft/Hard tyre approach with two stints of 13 laps on the Soft tyre compound and seeing out the final 26 laps on the Hard tyres.
The second-fastest approach would be to start on the Medium tyre and do 15 laps, with a second stint of 13 laps on the Soft tyre, followed by 24 laps on the Hard compound until the end of the race.
The slowest strategy would be a three-stopper, but Pirelli believes it would only be relevant should tyre degradation prove to be higher than expected. Should the strategy be viable, Pirelli believes two stints of 8-11 laps on the soft compound, followed by a final stint on the hard compound tyre.
The Met Office at the time of writing has a 0% chance of rain for the race, however, small showers have been cropping near the circuit and could cause a shift in strategy for the teams at any time.
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