Unless rain hits the track on Sunday, the German Grand Prix appears to be an easy one-stop race. Expect to see the pit stop window open around lap 17 for those starting on the ultra-soft compound, although it could be extended as far as lap 25 according to Pirelli.
All of the top ten will start on the ultra-soft tyre, which proved troublesome in the heat on Friday but is likely to hold together in the cooler conditions on Sunday. Left-rear blistering was the main problem in practice, but with cooler temperatures the focus will turn to front-left graining as the limiting factor for performance in the race.
The soft and medium tyre both offered similar performance over long runs on Friday, but the medium had less degradation by about 0.04s per lap. As a result, expect to see drivers switch straight from the ultra-soft to the mediums at their single pit stop with no real advantage to be gained from using the softs.
There aren't many strategy options open to Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo, but they may opt to start on the mediums in order to have ultra-soft tyres to attack at the end of the race. Both cars have a long-run pace advantage of well over a second on the midfield teams, so overtaking should be possible into the hairpin.