Rain is predicted on two of the three-day FIA World Touring Car Championship rounds at Monza, Italy this weekend, concentrating attention on the championship’s tyre supplier Yokohama ADVAN.

The correct level of grip is the Holy Grail of motorsport but especially at a track as notoriously difficult as the Autodromo Nazionale, one of the longest circuits on this year’s WTCC calendar.

The combination of long, fast straights and flat-out corners allows drivers to reach some of the highest speeds of the year and puts enormous pressure on tyres.

“The circuit is mostly flat as well, which compounds the problem as drivers can go even quicker,” said Yokohama’s Technical Consultant, Ian Beveridge. “The tyre is designed to cope with that kind of punishment though, and we’ve got plenty of data at our disposal thanks to last year’s races and the official WTCC test days here earlier in the year.

“Qualifying will be very entertaining, especially if it rains as drivers need to balance precision and acceleration into each corner with the right level of aggressiveness in order to really be fast.”

Tyre wear is further exhausted by Monza’s notorious curbs and the low grip level on-track. “That can leave drivers fighting under-steer or over-steer,” said Beveridge. “The resulting slide tends to be much harder to manage than on other tracks because they go further!