Tyres: hard or soft?

[Adam43]

Have there been any idications of which tyres everyone is using?

It has been suggested that maybe this year a 2-stopper will be viable because of the changes to the pitlane? Will we see this by some people using the softer set in qualifying?

Will Williams have to use a harder set to McClaren because of the increased rear tyre wear?

Are the Bridgestone more suitable for the race?

Maybe qualifying will tell us...

[Red]

Well, the only indication that I read is that Schumacher already has a favorite compound but which one of them remains undisclosed. Apparently Rubens was not so happy with either of them.

According to Suganuma (Bridgestone):
The smooth surface of this track and the nature of the corners means you must use softer compounds to be competitive. While wear is not a problem, the tyre must have good heat durability to cope with the hard braking we see here. All our teams tried both specifications today. The softer of the two clearly has better grip while the other gives better balance between front and rear. It is not clear yet which way some drivers will go so once we have checked the tyres we will make our recommendations

Michelins remain as mysterious:
Even the harder of the two options we have brought to this race might de described as quite 'soft'. Montreal is a case apart because although harder compounds are traditionally more durable, that isn't necessarily the case here. A stickier tyre might last longer simply because it will be sliding around much less.

I think we might see both being used in the race, although we haven't made up our minds yet. They are quite similar in terms of compound, less so in terms of construction, but so far there doesn't seem to be much to choose between them in terms of performance. Both are quite different from the tyres we used to win here last season, simply because greater experience has allowed us to evolve our methods considerably.

[Adam43]

Montoya suggested in the press conference that the choice of compound was pretty obvious (One was way too soft or way too hard? Or just rubbish?). In which case I assume that the two Williams are on the same compound. Does this translate to the other Michelin teams?