Portuguese GP: Pirelli Friday Practice Review


By Courtesy of Pirelli
May 1 2021

 
 Pirelli Portuguese GP Friday Practice Review
 
Pirelli Friday Review
 
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FRIDAY TYRE SUMMARY
* Valtteri Bottas set the fastest time of the day in FP1 at the Portimao circuit on the P Zero Red soft tyre this morning, while his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton topped FP2 on the same compound. In both sessions, the Red Bull of Max Verstappen was second-quickest, while Ferrari was fourth-fastest in both practice sessions.
* The afternoon session was somewhat warmer than the morning, with track temperatures peaking at 39 degrees centigrade and ambient temperatures in the region of 20 degrees centigrade. There was also some wind in the afternoon, which occasionally affected the aerodynamic performance of the cars. The FP2 session was delayed by 10 minutes due to safety checks on drain covers, but ran for the full allocated hour.
* In the morning, the majority of the drivers ran the P Zero White hard tyre before switching to the soft tyre at the end of the session. In the afternoon, most of the field started on the P Zero Yellow medium tyre before going onto the soft for a qualifying simulation.
* The P Zero White hard is currently around 0.8 seconds per lap slower than the P Zero Yellow medium here, while the P Zero Red soft tyre is about 0.4 seconds per lap faster than the medium. The gap between the medium and hard is slightly less than expected, whereas the gap from soft to medium is as anticipated.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“It was a reasonably straightforward pair of free practice sessions in Portugal with no big surprises, apart from a bit more wind in the afternoon that affected the times slightly, making the track slower. The tyre performance exceeded expectations, with just a little bit of graining on the front left of the softer compounds in the morning on a ‘green’ track. This improved in the warmer conditions of the afternoon. The track surface is still smooth making it sometimes challenging for the drivers to find the right level of grip. With a big pit stop time penalty, it should be a one-stop race on Sunday for the majority of drivers and we can already see that all three compounds could play an important role in this – which is why all the compounds were run extensively throughout the day”

 
Pirelli Friday Review
 
TOP 3 TIMES
FP1
Bottas		1m19.648s	SOFT C3 NEW
Verstappen	1m19.673s	SOFT C3 NEW
Perez		1m19.846s	SOFT C3 NEW

FP2
Hamilton	1m19.837s	SOFT C3 NEW
Verstappen	1m19.980s	SOFT C3 NEW
Bottas	1	m20.181s	SOFT C3 NEW

BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
FP1
HARD C1		Verstappen	1m20.318s
MEDIUM C2	Schumacher	1m24.306s
SOFT C3		Bottas		1m19.648s

FP2
HARD C1	Mazepin	1m24.230s
MEDIUM C2	Verstappen	1m20.257s
SOFT C3		Hamilton	1m19.837s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND	DRIVER		LAPS
HARD C1		Gasly		24
MEDIUM C2	Giovinazzi	25
SOFT C3		Ocon		24

TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
 			HARD	MEDIUM	SOFT
Kms driven*		1334	1625	2513
Sets used overall**	20	22	40

* 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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