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WHAT WE LEARNED FROM FP1 AND
FP2
- The pace is rapid: fastest time from Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas in
FP2 was nearly a second quicker than the equivalent time from the same
session last year.
- Another frontrunner was Haas, which showed potential to be just behind the
two top teams in both free practice sessions.
- We’re seeing some degree of degradation as expected; especially on the
soft tyre.
- There appears to be a tactical difference already: while the soft tyres
were used by everyone, there was a roughly 50-50 split of teams running the
medium and the hard in FP2. This might mean that different teams are
considering varied strategic approaches, assessing long run performances on
the hard and medium as well.
- Barcelona is renowned for being a high-energy track, but tyre behaviour
and performance remained in line with expectations.
- Track temperatures were warm today, peaking at 47 degrees centigrade:
around 15 degrees warmer than what was seen in pre-season testing here at
the end of February.
- So far, the performance gaps between the compounds are around 0.8 seconds
between medium and soft, and 1.1 seconds between hard and medium.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“There was nothing special to report from the first day of free practice in
Spain, which is to be expected as this is a very familiar venue for the
teams and drivers. The gap between the top two teams is very close, and Haas
has also shown pace that gets close to them on occasions. As always in
Barcelona, it’s about marginal gains – so preparing well for qualifying is
particularly important, as this is not a track where it’s particularly easy
to overtake. We’re happy with the tyre performance here so far, with the
only unexpected factor being a slightly bigger gap between hard and medium
than we anticipated.” |
FREE PRACTICE 1 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER TIME COMPOUND
Bottas 1m17.951s SOFT C3 NEW
Vettel 1m18.066s SOFT C3 NEW
Leclerc 1m18.172s SOFT C3 NEW
FREE PRACTICE 2 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER TIME COMPOUND
Bottas 1m17.284s SOFT C3 NEW
Hamilton 1m17.333s SOFT C3 USED
Leclerc 1m17.585s SOFT C3 NEW
FP1 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND DRIVER TIME
HARD C1 Verstappen 1m19.844s
MEDIUM C2 Gasly 1m19.285s
SOFT C3 Bottas 1m17.951s
FP2 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND DRIVER TIME
HARD C1 Hamilton 1m18.647s
MEDIUM C2 Bottas 1m17.835s
SOFT C3 Bottas 1m17.284s
MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND DRIVER LAPS
HARD C1 Albon 27
MEDIUM C2 Ricciardo 25
SOFT C3 Leclerc, Sainz 24
TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
HARD MEDIUM SOFT
Kms driven* 1242 1573 3030
Sets used overall** 14 23 44
* The above number gives the total amount of kilometres
driven in FP1 and FP2 today, all drivers combined.
** Per compound, all drivers combined.
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