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FRIDAY SUMMARY
** Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas was fastest in both sessions with Red
Bull’s Max Verstappen second in FP1 and third in FP2 after Lewis Hamilton
and with a gap of just over 0.2 seconds – indicating that we are likely to
see a closely-fought qualifying session and race.
* So far we noted a slightly bigger gap (0.9 seconds) between Yellow medium
and Red soft than expected and a gap of 0.7 seconds between medium and White
hard.
* The teams and drivers all had their first taste of Mugello in two free
practice sessions today, with running to acquaint themselves with the
high-speed demands of the Tuscan track, in warm temperatures that exceeded
30 degrees ambient and 40 degrees on track.
* Teams sampled all three of the Pirelli compounds available (C1, C2, and
C3: the three hardest in the range) with many splitting their strategies in
order to accumulate as much information about the tyres as possible, using
different fuel loads. This is normal for Friday free practice, but becomes
particularly important at a demanding new venue with abrasive asphalt.
* As expected, the soft tyre was fastest – but many drivers reported that
its optimal qualifying performance was delivered over just one lap, which
means that some drivers may choose to start the race on the medium tyre.
* The considerable challenge of the up-and-down track layout, allied with
the warm temperatures seen today, meant that there was a relatively high
degree of tyre wear and degradation seen – particularly on the long runs –
which should be the case for the race as well.
Run plans were disrupted by two red flags during the afternoon session and
this prevented to collect the usual amount of data.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“The drivers all enjoyed their first taste of Mugello, with the unofficial
track record that was set back in 2004 already comprehensively broken in FP1
and then lowered even further in FP2, on both occasions with the Red soft
tyre. We expected tyre wear to be relatively high over the long runs, with
high degradation also on the soft and the data we saw in free practice
proved that this was the case. Performance-wise we noted a slightly bigger
time gap between medium and soft than expected. This will obviously be a
crucial factor when it comes to calculating the qualifying and race
strategy, together with the data accumulated tomorrow in FP3. The ‘green’
track we experienced today meant that there was plenty of track evolution,
which should continue tomorrow.” |
TOP 3 TIMES
FP1
Bottas 1m17.879s SOFT C3 NEW
Verstappen 1m17.927s SOFT C3 NEW
Leclerc 1m18.186s SOFT C3 NEW
FP2
Bottas 1m16.989s SOFT C3 NEW
Hamilton 1m17.196s SOFT C3 NEW
Verstappen 1m17.235s SOFT C3 NEW
BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
FP1
HARD C1 Verstappen 1m19.017s
MEDIUM C2 Hamilton 1m19.069s
SOFT C3 Bottas 1m17.879s
FP2
HARD C1 Hamilton 1m18.299s
MEDIUM C2 Bottas 1m17.997s
SOFT C3 Bottas 1m16.989s
MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND DRIVER LAPS
HARD C1 Raikkonen 23
MEDIUM C2 Vettel 28
SOFT C3 Leclerc 23
TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
HARD MEDIUM SOFT
Kms driven* 1531 1547 2979
Sets used overall** 20 20 39
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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