FRIDAY TYRE SUMMARY
* Mercedes was first and second fastest in both free practice sessions today. Valtteri Bottas topped the times on each occasion, setting the quickest time of the day on the P Zero Yellow medium this afternoon.
* Conditions were slightly cooler than last year but similar from FP1 to FP2, with air temperatures around 15 degrees centigrade and track temperature that peaked at 25 degrees.
* Although the teams raced at Imola last year, free practice in 2020 was condensed into one 90-minute session on Saturday morning.
* So far, it looks like the P Zero White hard is around 0.5 seconds per lap slower than the P Zero Yellow medium, while the P Zero Red soft tyre is about 0.7 seconds per lap faster than the medium.
* The performance gaps between all three compounds are different to initial estimates. The gap between hard and medium is smaller than expected because the hard, although requiring a longer warm-up time, is then able to work well and provide a good level of grip. Between the soft and the medium the gap is instead bigger – because we were expecting lower track temperatures and general graining on the C4: not only on the long runs.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“The conditions we had at Imola today were actually a little bit cooler than those we experienced six months ago in November. The tyres themselves performed well overall. We saw some graining during long runs on the soft C4 compound throughout both sessions. Imola is a medium severity track that doesn’t put a lot of energy through the tyres, so in low track temperatures it’s difficult to warm them up: especially the medium and hard compounds. By the afternoon, the track was already in quite good condition, despite there being very few support races. The gap between the compounds is lower than expected between hard and medium and higher than expected between medium and soft, although the difference can vary from team to team. This will naturally influence strategies”

TOP 3 TIMES
FP1
Bottas		1m16.564s	SOFT C4 NEW
Hamilton	1m16.605s	SOFT C4 NEW
Verstappen	1m16.622s	SOFT C4 NEW

FP2
Bottas		1m15.551s	MEDIUM C3 NEW
Hamilton	1m15.561s	SOFT C4 NEW
Gasly		1m15.629s	SOFT C4 NEW

BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
FP1
HARD C2		Sainz	1m17.296s
MEDIUM C3	Latifi	1m18.974s
SOFT C4		Bottas	1m16.564s

FP2
HARD C2		Latifi	1m17.735s
MEDIUM C3	Bottas	1m15.551s
SOFT C4		Hamilton	1m15.561s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND	DRIVER				LAPS
HARD C2		Russell				21
MEDIUM C3	Hamilton, Ocon, Perez, Vettel	20
SOFT C4		Sainz				21

TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
 			HARD	MEDIUM	SOFT
Kms driven*		1217	1379	1875
Sets used overall**	20	22	37

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