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Nico Hulkenberg thinks there could be a "traffic jam" in the pits early in the Canadian Grand Prix if high degradation of Pirelli's soft Formula 1 tyre does not improve.

A number of drivers were caught out in Friday practice in Montreal by the extreme drop-off of the softest C5 compound rubber, which has prompted talk of there being a two-stop race on Sunday.

Hulkenberg suggested that if track evolution does not increase significantly on Saturday there could be an early dash for the pits from the majority of drivers early in Sunday's race.

"There is going to be a traffic jam on lap six in the pits," he said, when asked by Autosport about how the soft tyre was behaving.

"We will need to introduce some traffic lights!

"But usually as well today, the track started in a really poor condition and got better just through the day constantly.

"With more running tomorrow, and then we see it every year that by Sunday things are in a much better place than Friday very often.

"Maybe it won't be as bad as it seems now."

Hulkenberg's Renault team-mate Daniel Ricciardo said a two-stop race was on the cards judging by how things had played out so far.

"[The] track temperature is getting hotter for Sunday, so the days of an easy one-stop [strategy] around here, we might not see that this weekend," he said.

"I am happy if that is the case because you can overtake here, so any kind of two-stop will open things up.

"There was also a big variation between teams.

"It looked like some cars could hold a high 1m17s and others were dropping into the high 1m19s, so if we are forced to stay out on that and do a one-stop then you might see some pretty big differences across teams."

Pirelli reckoned the leading teams would consider trying to get through Q2 on the medium tyres, and therefore avoid using the softs altogether in the race, but that would depend on the delta time between the two compounds being less than one second.

Pirelli's current estimated gap between the compounds is 0.8 seconds.

"It is not convenient to stay on a soft that is degrading," said Pirelli head of racing Mario Isola.

"That is why I believe someone will try to be on medium/hard in the race.

"But if the delta [between medium and soft] is more than one second, in that case I am not sure they will try to qualify with the medium because it is too high a risk."