Sakhir,
27
November
2020
|
19:31
Europe/Amsterdam

2020 Bahrain Grand Prix – Practice sessions

TYRE GAP

FRIDAY TYRE SUMMARY

  • Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was fastest in both sessions: in FP1 on the P Zero Yellow medium tyre and then in FP2 on the Red soft tyre (this year in the C4 compound for Bahrain).
  • During both sessions, drivers also had the chance to try out Pirelli’s 2021 tyres, in C3 compound. It was compulsory to run the new tyres in FP2 (for a minimum run of six laps) while teams also had the option to run them in FP1 if they wished. All the drivers ran them in both sessions.
  • The tyre gap is not easy to define because today’s running was somewhat influenced by the 2021 tyre tests and a red flag stoppage. However, the estimated gap is currently around 0.6 seconds between hard and medium, with the same difference between medium and soft.
  • The FP1 session was more representative than usual, with temperatures in both sessions being quite similar.

F2: LATEST NEWS

Free practice in Formula 2 was affected by some drops of rain and interrupted by red flags, which meant that the teams didn’t get much of a chance to adapt to the P Zero hard and medium tyres that had been nominated for this weekend ahead of qualifying. During qualifying, all the teams ran on medium tyres, with traffic and red flags limiting the timed lap attempts. Pole position for UNI-Virtuosi’s Callum Ilott keeps the F2 title fight alive, as the Englishman reduced Mick Schumacher’s championship advantage heading into the final four races.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING

“In comparison to last season, this was a more aggressive nomination by bringing the compounds in the middle of the range to Bahrain, with the softest choice being the C4 compound this year. It was quite a busy couple of sessions today, with each car running two sets of our 2021 tyres in C3 compound during both FP1 and FP2, allowing both us and the teams to collect plenty of data on new and used examples of these tyres. Now we have plenty of information to analyse before trying these 2021 tyres again in Abu Dhabi. Coming back to Bahrain this weekend, compared to the usual calendar slot earlier in the year, we had quite similar conditions in FP1 and FP2: with track temperatures around 26 degrees in both sessions. This gave teams the chance to test the tyres in conditions more similar to the race, and perhaps concentrate more on race pace. All the tyres performed in line with expectations today, considering also that the track was quite slippery. The soft compound showed no graining, but as is usual in Bahrain, it will be particularly crucial to manage the rear tyres to prevent them overheating.”

TOP 3 TIMES
FP1
Hamilton 1m29.033s MEDIUM C3 NEW
Bottas 1m29.482s MEDIUM C3 NEW
Perez 1m30.000s SOFT C4 NEW
FP2
Hamilton 1m28.971s SOFT C4 NEW
Verstappen 1m29.318s MEDIUM C3 NEW
Bottas 1m29.336s SOFT C4 NEW
BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
FP1
HARD C2 Albon 1m30.473s
MEDIUM C3 Hamilton 1m29.033s
SOFT C4 Perez 1m30.000s
FP2
HARD C2 Norris 1m31.158s
MEDIUM C3 Verstappen 1m29.318s
SOFT C4 Hamilton 1m28.971s
MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND DRIVER LAPS
HARD C2 Latifi 20
MEDIUM C3 Kvyat 20
SOFT C4 Leclerc 18
TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
  HARD MEDIUM SOFT
Kms driven* 708 1661 2083
Sets used overall** 10 24 45

* 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 22.5 psi (front) | 21.0 psi (rear) -3.50° (front) | -2.00° (rear) CAMBER