Small separations in its construction, caused by damage sustained from running across the Losail circuit's high kerbs, had triggered concerns about potential failures in the race.
A hastily revised configuration of track limits, allied to an emergency 10-minute practice session to get used to the new layout was the first step in a weekend that could now have a totally different feel.
So ahead of what could be a mandated three-stop Qatar GP, we look at the key issues at stake in terms of what has happened so far, and where things could lead from here.
What has caused the tyre problem?
Pirelli discovered the problem after routine analysis of sets used in FP1 and returned by the teams, which as on every Friday were cut up and examined.
As the company's F1 boss Mario Isola noted, his engineers "saw an indication that there was – in the construction of the tyre on the sidewall – a small separation between the carcass chord and the topping compound."
Further investigation indicated that it was caused by the Losail kerbs, especially those in the high-speed Turn 12-13 section, where drivers were spending a relatively long time running along them.
A perfect storm of the time spent on the kerbs, the high g-loadings in the corner sequence, the harshness of the kerbs and their edges plus the frequency put through the tyres as they bumped across them created the problem.
Isola explained: "It's not just the geometry of the kerbs, because these kerbs are used in many other circuits. It's the time and the speed they stay on the kerbs that is important.
"So, here, during the lap, all the drivers are spending quite a lot of time at high speed on the kerbs, and this is damaging the construction."
Is this a new phenomenon?
Tyre damage was caused by the Qatar kerbs in 2021, and what occurred was fully investigated by Pirelli after the race weekend, with the results submitted to the FIA.
Source: Autosport