Spielberg,
03
July
2020
|
17:42
Europe/Amsterdam

2020 Austrian Grand Prix - Practice sessions

TYRES' GAP

FRIDAY TYRE SUMMARY

  • Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton went fastest in both free practice sessions today using the P Zero Red soft tyre: faster than the equivalent time last year in both sessions. His team mate Valtteri Bottas was second in both FP1 and FP2.
  • Ferrari decided not to use the soft tyres in FP1 and only ran them in FP2 for the first time, with Sebastian Vettel classified fourth overall in the afternoon.
  • The fastest non-Mercedes today was Racing Point, with Sergio Perez third overall in FP2, also on the soft tyre.
  • Pirelli’s 18-inch P Zero tyres made a successful competition debut today in free practice and qualifying for Formula 2. Formula 1 will adopt the same rim size in 2022.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING

“As expected, there was a relatively small gap in terms of performance between the three compounds at the Red Bull Ring, with a short lap that’s covered in just over a minute. Despite a very long time since the drivers were last on track, the fastest times in both free practice sessions today were slightly faster than their equivalents last year, confirming the development of the cars with exactly the same tyres as 2019. There was plenty of track evolution following some overnight rain, which led to the intermediate tyres being run briefly in FP1. With more teams challenging for the top 10, it’s more likely that the soft will be needed to guarantee a chance of progressing to Q3, which is probably why we saw a lot of drivers concentrating on long runs with the soft tyre as well as the medium today. At such a finely-balanced circuit such as the Red Bull Ring, the smallest detail will count even more than usual”.

TOP 3 TIMES
FP1
Hamilton 1m04.816s SOFT C4 USED
Bottas 1m05.172s SOFT C4 NEW
Verstappen 1m05.418s SOFT C4 NEW
FP2
Hamilton 1m04.304s SOFT C4 NEW
Bottas 1m04.501s SOFT C4 NEW
Perez 1m04.945s SOFT C4 NEW
BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
FP1
HARD C2 Hamilton 1m06.205s
MEDIUM C3 Ricciardo 1m05.860s
SOFT C4 Hamilton 1m04.816s
INTERMEDIATE - -
FP2
HARD C2 Sainz 1m05.864s
MEDIUM C3 Hamilton 1m05.095s
SOFT C4 Hamilton 1m04.304s
MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND DRIVER LAPS
HARD C2 Gasly, Latifi, Vettel 31
MEDIUM C3 Stroll 28
SOFT C4 Kvyat 27
INTERMEDIATE All the drivers 2
TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
  HARD MEDIUM SOFT INTERMEDIATE
Kms driven* 1449 2167 2543 173
Sets used overall** 20 28 32 20

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

MIN. STARTING PRESSURES (slicks) EOS CAMBER LIMIT
PRESSURE 24.5 psi (front) | 19.0 psi (rear) -3.50° (front) | -2.00° (rear) CAMBER