Vettel takes a chance on more ultras for Hungary GP

Pirelli tyres for Nico Hulkenberg (GER) Renault Sport F1 Team.
© XPB 

Sebastian Vettel has opted to take an increased number of Pirelli's ultrasoft tyres to the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of the month.

The Ferrari driver will be packing nine sets of the purple compound for the race, one more than his team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

It's also two sets more than his rivals at Mercedes and Red Bull, all of whom have decided on a more conservative assignment of seven sets of ultras.

Pirelli has once again offered teams a choice of medium, soft and ultrasoft tyres for the race weekend. Omitting the supersoft compound from the line-up makes it another 'non-continuous' line up, the same as this weekend's German race.

It means teams have to cope with a bigger step between the ultras and the rest of the compounds when it comes to planning qualifying and race strategies.

Drivers get one set of each compound by default, and then can make up the rest of their 13-set assignment as they wish.

In Vettel's case, his bumper load of ultras is accompanied by three sets of soft tyres and just the one mandatory set of mediums. Raikkonen has preferred to take an additional set of the white walled compound.

Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have all made the same selection, with two sets of mediums and four of the soft tyres alongside their seven ultras.

But Hamilton has gone all-in on the yellow soft compound, taking five sets in total and leaving room for just the one default set of mediums in his Budapest hand luggage.

Elsewhere, Force India drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon have made the same selection as Raikkonen. That's also the choice of McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, Haas' Kevin Magnussen and Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly.

Magnussen's team mate Romain Grosjean has opted for four sets of softs and just one of the mediums, which is the same as Brendon Hartley has called for in the second Toro Rosso.

Williams and Sauber have both followed Vettel's lead and requested nine sets of ultras. Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc also copy Vettel's choice of three sets of softs, while their team mates Sergey Sirotkin and Marcus Ericsson split their remaining allocation equally between softs and mediums.

Just one team has gone for ten sets of ultras - Renault also made the same call for the German Grand Prix. This time around, Nico Hulkenberg adds two sets of mediums and one of softs to his consignment, while Carlos Sainz switches things around and takes the contrasting selection.

Infographic showing the selection of tyre compounds made by teams and drivers for the 2018 Hungarian Grand Prix

© Pirelli

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