Azerbaijan GP: Pirelli Friday Practice Review

Drivers used the free practice sessions on the slippery Baku circuit, to assess tyre degradation in the unique characteristics of the second-longest track on the calendar and the fastest street circuit of the year, during a race weekend held two months earlier than last season.

This meant that track conditions were significantly cooler than 2017, with FP2 finishing in ambient temperatures of 21 degrees centigrade and 27 degrees on track. As the Baku street circuit is only used once a year, there was a high degree of track evolution, but last year’s fastest times in FP1 and FP2 were both beaten. There’s currently a gap of around 0.8 seconds between supersoft and ultrasoft, with the gap between soft and supersoft still to be accurately established.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“The cooler conditions of this year’s race obviously had an effect on tyre behaviour, also combined with track evolution. In particular, the main challenge is to get the rear and the front tyres working in balance with each other: the very long straight has a tendency to cool the tyres down anyway, and this is only exacerbated by the lower ambient temperatures this year. These lower temperatures favour the ultrasoft with its lower working range, and so far we are seeing around 0.8 seconds per lap difference between the supersoft and ultrasoft. Another issue that the drivers are having to deal with is front-locking due to a combination of the low-grip and sometimes bumpy surface, together with the effect of tyres cooling down on the straight. As more rubber is laid down on track, this picture may change, but the extremely close gaps at the top of the field already suggest that we are in for an interesting and unpredictable weekend.”

FREE PRACTICE 1 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER 		TIME 	  COMPOUND
Bottas 		1m44.242s ULTRASOFT NEW
Ricciardo	1m44.277s SUPERSOFT NEW
Perez 		1m45.075s SUPERSOFT USED

FREE PRACTICE 2 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER 		TIME 	  COMPOUND
Ricciardo 	1m42.795s ULTRASOFT NEW
Raikkonen	1m42.864s ULTRASOFT NEW
Verstappen 	1m42.911s ULTRASOFT NEW

FP1 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	  TIME
SOFT 		Ricciardo 1m45.369s
SUPERSOFT	Ricciardo 1m44.277s
ULTRASOFT 	Bottas 1m44.242s

FP2 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	  TIME
SOFT 		Hamilton  1m44.196s
SUPERSOFT	Ricciardo 1m43.512s
ULTRASOFT 	Ricciardo 1m42.795s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	  	LAPS
SOFT 		Sirotkin  	21
SUPERSOFT	Vandoorne 	22
ULTRASOFT 	Bottas, Hartley 22

TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
			SOFT	SUPERSOFT	ULTRASOFT
Kms driven* 		858 	2454 		2916
Sets used overall**	12	30		37

* The above number gives the total amount of kilometres
driven in FP1 and FP2 today, all drivers combined.
** Per compound, all drivers combined.