Are Quali tyres used for races too?
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Teams have a fixed set of tyres for each race weekend. They can chose their mix between three different compounds which are chosen by the tyre manufacturer for each race. You have a soft, medium and hard compound. Softer compounds are faster but harder compounds last longer. As an incentive to get teams to take part in the practice sessions they have to hand back some tyres after these meaning that they need to use them or loose them.
At the second qualifying any team that makes it through needs to start the race on the tyres they set the fastest time on, not just the same compound. This means that the top ten cars starts the race on worn tyres that have already been used for three laps, one of which is a hotlap. And this adds some tactical decisions in Q2 as teams might chose a harder compound which would give them an advantage in the race as they can go further in the first stint and take softer tyres in their second stint. But doing so will make it harder to set a fast time so they might not make the top ten and it would have all been for nothing. The other option is to take a soft tyre for Q2 and make sure to make it to Q3. But then they need to make an early pitstop in the race to get out of the soft worn tyres and have to take a slow hard compound for their long second stint.
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