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WHAT WE LEARNED FROM FP1 AND
FP2
* Both practice sessions ran largely as expected, despite a couple of
interruptions in the morning and another red flag in the afternoon that
disrupted the long runs. The FP2 session was the most relevant, with falling
track temperatures as afternoon gave way to night, just like qualifying and
the race.
* Valtteri Bottas led a Mercedes one-two in FP2, with his fastest time on
the soft tyre nearly a second faster than the equivalent time last year (set
on the 2018 hypersoft).
* Most of the running in free practice was on the Yellow medium and Red soft
compounds, with fewer laps on the White hard.
* Conditions remained dry and warm throughout the day, with representative
race conditions throughout FP2, in the region of 25 degrees centigrade
ambient and 28 degrees on track.
* As expected, wear and degradation was generally quite low throughout FP2,
pointing at a one-stop race on Sunday.
* The current performance gap between the medium and the soft tyre is around
a second, with a similar gap between medium and hard.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“No real surprises from either of the free practice sessions from our point
of view, apart from the fact that the performance gaps between all the
compounds is a little bit bigger than expected for now, and the red flag
interrupted the long FP2 runs at a crucial moment. Given that FP3 tomorrow
will be run in warm daytime conditions, analysing tonight’s data carefully
will be particularly important as the teams work out their qualifying
strategy: whether to approach Q2 with the medium tyre – which could be a
valid tactic – or instead the soft tyre, if they believe it will last well
enough throughout the opening race stint. The hard could equally play a
pivotal role on race day for those who start on the soft, with a
considerable number of teams trying it during FP2. This evening resulted in
best lap times that are around a second faster than they were in the same
session at Yas Marina last year: a sure sign that Formula 1 continues to
evolve and become constantly quicker, so we need to ensure tyres that match
this progress.” |
FREE PRACTICE 1 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER TIME COMPOUND
Bottas 1m36.957s MEDIUM C4 NEW
Verstappen 1m37.492s SOFT C5 NEW
Hamilton 1m37.591s SOFT C5 NEW
FREE PRACTICE 2 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER TIME COMPOUND
Bottas 1m36.256s SOFT C5 NEW
Hamilton 1m36.566s SOFT C5 NEW
Leclerc 1m36.642s SOFT C5 NEW
FP1 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND DRIVER TIME
HARD C3 Stroll 1m40.925s
MEDIUM C4 Bottas 1m36.957s
SOFT C5 Verstappen 1m37.492s
FP2 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND DRIVER TIME
HARD C3 Hamilton 1m37.975s
MEDIUM C4 Verstappen 1m37.145s
SOFT C5 Bottas 1m36.256s
MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND DRIVER LAPS
HARD C3 Gasly 25
MEDIUM C4 Kvyat 21
SOFT C5 Hamilton 19
TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
HARD MEDIUM SOFT
Kms driven* 849 1877 2843
Sets used overall** 10 28 46
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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