Late delivery of Bahrain tyres causes Estoril rubber shortage

A delay in the delivery of the tyres used in the Bahrain season opener caused a shortage in availability of tyres to perform free practice at Estoril, Portugal.

Although the supply from Michelin is fully available, the TCR Sporting rules state that a maximum of ten new tyres can be allocated to each driver per weekend from the second event of the season on. The delay in the delivery of the used tyres from Bahrain meant teams were not able to use them for free practice, thus limiting the available mileage.

Teams are said to have agreed to use a maximum of twelve new tyres per driver, which is obviously causing an all-different tyre strategy compared to previous events when ten were used and ten new.

Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s James Nash elected to only perform an installation lap in the second free practice session. Testing on Wednesday may have still given enough technical information to have a good setup ahead of qualifying, which is scheduled for 16.40 local time.