Castroneves predicts “fun” high tire degradation race at Sonoma

The Brazilian, who can’t win the 2016 championship but is a strong contender for third place, said: “The tires are degrading and that’s fine. We have to learn to look after them, and that’s interesting for us, a good challenge.

“And it’s a challenge that makes exciting races, with order changes and different strategies going on.”

Asked if it would be similar to the IndyCar race here back in 2010, when the tires proverbially fell off a cliff in terms of grip around the 18-lap mark, Castroneves said: “Exactly. That’s exactly how I think it will be… And the fans are going to love it.

“If we have no yellows – and we have had a lot of races the past couple seasons without yellows or not many – you’re going to see a lot teams and drivers trying different strategies to get to the front and get track position and clean air.

“That’s a plus for the race. And remember, we only tried blacks [harder-compound tires]. We don’t have an idea about how the reds will be. They probably will degrade even faster, but while they last they will be faster. Probably a lot faster.”

Castroneves, who was top of the times in the morning session, said: “The #3 car was very good right out of the box. The others [teammates Will Power, Simon Pagenaud and Juan Pablo Montoya] started off all doing different things, but our setup prevailed and they liked the setup we had.

“So that proved we were going in the right direction. In the afternoon, Will was fastest of us by a few hundredths, and then Montoya, myself and Simon, all within the same tenth. Very close and fast.

“It’s nice to have that speed there, but it’s tires and strategy that will decide how the race goes for us or against us.”