The FIA has rejected several teams complaints that they should be allowed to change their front-tyres for safety reasons, after suffering heavy blistering during Q3.
Formula 1’s tyre supplier, Pirelli, announced it would provide an extra 17 sets of front dry-weather tyres, but these will now not be needed.
The complaints arose after changeable conditions on Saturday impacted qualifying, most of the top ten opted to run several laps on the same soft tyres as the track conditions continually improved as the rain abated.
This led to severe blistering and led to Red Bull and McLaren, among others, requesting special dispensation to change their tyres.
This would of course contravene the sporting regulations which stipulate that the top-ten must start on the same tyres they qualified, unless wet weather tyres were used – they weren’t in this case.
A decision came just an hour before the race start, with the governing body confirming that teams must start on their qualifying tyres.
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