The unique demands of the Valencia street circuit mean that Pirelli will introduce its brand new medium tyre in Spain this weekend, which was tested during free practice in Canada two weeks ago.

The Italian manufacturer, which previously intended to use medium and supersofts on the streets of Valencia, will now use medium and soft.

The PZero White medium tyre is not quite as durable as the hard tyre seen during the first five grands prix of the season, but it is quicker while still representing a significant step in range over the PZero Yellow soft tyre, which is the option tyre in Valencia.

Pirelli has tested in Valencia twice during the build-up to its first season in Formula One, but only at the permanent circuit on the outskirts of the city rather than on the 5.419-kilometre street circuit inaugurated in 2008, which runs through the ultra-modern City of Arts and Sciences made famous by the architecture of local man Santiago Calatrava.

Valencia will be the third street circuit race in succession this year, following Monaco and Canada, where the outcome of the race was only settled in the very final laps.

The Valencia track has little in common with other street circuits, containing a wide variety of corners and a relatively high proportion of the lap spent on full throttle, together with a smooth surface.

The stop-start nature of the track and frequent changes of direction place heavy demands on the tyres under traction and braking, while there is also very little adhesion to provide lateral support in the corners. The track is only used once a year, which means that the amount of grip evolves considerably over the course of the weekend as more rubber is laid down.

Paul Hembery, Motorsport Director: "We've seen some fantastic street races so far this season, with the last grand prix in Canada being one of the highlights of the year, so we hope that Valencia will continue this pattern although it's notoriously difficult to overtake there. Tyre wear on this circuit is likely to be quite high because of the track layout, the nature of the surface, and also the weather conditions, which should be very warm. For all these reasons, we've selected the medium and soft tyres, which should provide the teams with a good level of resistance, plenty of different opportunities for strategy and about a second per lap difference between the compounds. The PZero White tyres have been adjusted slightly from our original specification to make them a bit more durable, along the lines of the tweak we made to the PZero Silver hard tyre in Spain, and this was the compound that the teams tested during Friday's free practice in Canada, giving us plenty of useful data."

With 25 numbered corners, Valencia has the highest number of corners of any track on the Formula One calendar, as well as the fifth-highest number of gear changes per lap of the year. There are 57 laps in the race this weekend. Weather conditions are expected to be dry and warm over the race weekend, with ambient temperatures in the region of 29 degrees centigrade and track temperatures that are among the hottest of the year so far. During the three grands prix held so far in Valencia, there has never been a particularly high number of pit stops. Last year there were 29 stops in total: an average of 1.2 per car.

To experience the Valencia Street Circuit in more detail click here