Why were most of the teams faster on the Soft tyres in Q3 than SS while Mercedes seemed comfortable in SS?

There could be many explanations.

One explanation could be that it depends on the new tyres. According to Pirelli, the reduction of the tread means - regarding the temperature of the tyre - about 7/10 °C less than usual (without the reduction of the tred). Considering that the ideal window of the supersoft tyre isn't so big (20°C / 90-110 °C), it's possible that some teams/drivers had difficulties to bring the new supersofts into the right working range, thus they struggled to get the maximum from the tyre, while it's easier to bring the softs into the right window, as it's bigger (30°C / 105-135°C). Maybe Mercedes, which had problems with overheating, thanks to the reduction of the tread, struggled less to bring the tyre into the right working range.

At least this could be an explanation. But being honest, probably no one really knows: after qualifying, drivers said that the new supersoft behave a certain way, while Pirelli says that it shouldn't behave that way. Probably no one has really understood much about these new tyres.

/r/formula1 Thread