Spanish GP: Pirelli Friday Practice Review


By Courtesy of Pirelli
May 7 2021

 
 Pirelli Spanish GP Friday Practice Review
 
Pirelli Friday Review
 
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FRIDAY TYRE SUMMARY
* Mercedes was fastest in both free practice sessions, using the P Zero Red soft C3 compound on each occasion. Valtteri Bottas set the fastest lap on the re-worked Barcelona track (with a new Turn 10) in the morning, while Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the day in the afternoon.
* Alpine also performed strongly at Fernando Alonso’s home grand prix, finishing fourth and fifth in FP2 behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.
* Conditions were warm and dry throughout the day, with temperatures around 25 degrees centigrade ambient and 40 degrees on track.
* The drivers generally ran the P Zero White hard tyre and P Zero Red soft tyre in FP1 (with the exception of Ferrari, the only team to use the P Zero Yellow medium in the morning) before moving onto the medium and the soft in the afternoon to concentrate on qualifying and race simulations.
* The performance gap between the compounds is as expected on this well-known track: around 0.8s between soft and medium, and 1.0s between medium and hard.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“The tyres performed as we expected throughout free practice today with no graining or abrasion seen during each of the sessions and a performance gap between the compounds as anticipated. The surface here in Barcelona is very different to Portimao a week ago, with more abrasive asphalt that produces more grip. The new Turn 10 makes life a little bit easier for the tyres here, especially the rears, as it is more flowing than before. The teams concentrated on the soft and medium compounds in the afternoon, which are likely to be the key tyres for the race. This is due to the fact that there is a bigger performance gap to the hard, and also because there is less time lost in the pits than there was in Portugal, which encourages shorter stints.”

 
Pirelli Friday Review
 
TOP 3 TIMES
FP1
Bottas		1m18.504s	SOFT C3 NEW
Verstappen	1m18.537s	SOFT C3 NEW
Hamilton	1m18.627s	SOFT C3 USED

FP2
Hamilton	1m18.170s	SOFT C3 NEW
Bottas		1m18.309s	SOFT C3 NEW
Leclerc		1m18.335s	SOFT C3 NEW

BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
FP1
HARD C1		Hamilton	1m19.675s
MEDIUM C2	Leclerc		1m18.996s
SOFT C3		Bottas		1m18.504s

FP2
HARD C1		-		-
MEDIUM C2	Bottas		1m18.419s
SOFT C3		Hamilton	1m18.170s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND	DRIVER		LAPS
HARD C1		Leclerc, Ocon	21
MEDIUM C2	Ocon, Raikkonen	23
SOFT C3		Alonso		22
TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
 			HARD	MEDIUM	SOFT
Kms driven*		1145	1457	2197
Sets used overall**	20	22	38

* 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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