Bahrain,
04
December
2020
|
21:08
Europe/Amsterdam

2020 Sakhir Grand Prix - Practice sessions

TYRE GAP

FRIDAY TYRE SUMMARY

  • The shortest timed lap in Formula 1 history – less than 55 seconds – was set in FP1 at the Sakhir Grand Prix by George Russell on the P Zero Red soft tyre. On his debut for Mercedes, the Englishman also went fastest in FP2, again on the soft. Russell was one of three new driver and car combinations taking part this weekend, along with Pietro Fittipaldi (Haas) and Jack Aitken (Williams).
  • The lap times in FP2 were generally slightly slower than in FP1, due to track limits being enforced in Turn 8.
  • With the shortest lap of the year bar Monaco, this was also among the closest tyre gaps in terms of performance. There’s around 0.4 seconds between soft and P Zero Yellow medium so far, with approximately 0.3 seconds between medium and P Zero White hard.
  • Temperatures remained cool by normal Bahrain standards, with the FP2 session taking place in 25 degrees centigrade ambient, with just one degree more of track temperature.
  • While there’s less energy going through the tyres on the Bahrain Sakhir lap compared to the full grand prix circuit, two stops still seems to be the most likely option for the race on this abrasive surface.

F2: LATEST NEWS

Free practice took place only on the hard tyre, but the drivers switched to the soft tyre – nominated for the Sakhir Grand Prix – for qualifying: a step softer than the medium that was the softest choice in Bahrain last weekend. The traffic caused by having 22 cars on this short track meant that drivers struggled to get a clear lap, but a collision resulted in title favourite Mick Schumacher (Prema) starting from 18th for tomorrow’s Feature Race while Carlin’s Yuki Tsunoda claimed pole. Unlike F1, none of the drivers are obliged to start on the tyre they qualified with.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING

“With such a short lap here and the field bunched up, the margins are more closely balanced: including the performance gap between the tyres. As this is effectively a brand new venue, it was important for teams to gather as much data as possible to compare the performance of all three compounds and formulate the optimal strategy. We’ve seen less degradation so far than we did at the previous round in Bahrain last weekend. As a result, the soft C4 tyre can be used more extensively than it was a week ago on the longer circuit. In Formula 2, the drivers got used to a brand new tyre nomination, with the soft tyre chosen for this weekend alongside the hard. This makes for a notable speed and durability discrepancy, which will heavily influence the race strategy. We’ve seen today that traffic on the short lap is definitely an issue, and that’s sure to influence Formula 1 qualifying tomorrow”.

TOP 3 TIMES
FP1
Russell 0m54.546s SOFT C4 USED
Verstappen 0m54.722s SOFT C4 NEW
Albon 0m54.811s SOFT C4 NEW
FP2
Russell 0m54.713s SOFT C4 NEW
Verstappen 0m54.713s SOFT C4 USED
Perez 0m54.866s SOFT C4 NEW
BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
FP1
HARD C2 Perez 0m56.520s
MEDIUM C3 Raikkonen 0m56.630s
SOFT C4 Russell 0m54.546s
FP2
HARD C2 Bottas 0m55.321s
MEDIUM C3 Verstappen 0m55.043s
SOFT C4 Russell 0m54.713s
MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND DRIVER LAPS
HARD C2 Bottas 35
MEDIUM C3 Kvyat 34
SOFT C4 Ocon 31
TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
  HARD MEDIUM SOFT
Kms driven* 914 1551 3411
Sets used overall** 12 18 49

* 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 23.5 psi (front) | 21.5 psi (rear) -3.50° (front) | -2.00° (rear) CAMBER