As the rules were originally written, drivers were obliged to use new medium tyres in Saturday’s SQ1 and SQ2 sessions, and then new softs on SQ3.
Teams realised that they didn’t have to save a set of new softs for SQ3 if they felt that those tyres would be more useful earlier in the weekend, either in FP1 or Friday’s qualifying session for the grand prix.
In Baku, Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris used all their soft tyres before the sprint qualifying session.
In that event Tsunoda didn’t make SQ3, but Norris did.
McLaren left the option open for him to run on intermediates – which the rules allowed – should two drivers in the same situation have made SQ3. However, Norris didn’t need to run so he remained in the garage and qualified 10th.
The possibility of intermediates being used in a dry session was seen as a farcical by many in the paddock, and has now been addressed.
The rules have changed to allow drivers to use any set of soft tyres in SQ3.
That means drivers can still gamble by using all their new softs before sprint qualifying knowing that they can at least still run in SQ3 even on used softs.
Source: Autosport