Spa-Francorchamps,
27
August
2021
|
17:07
Europe/Amsterdam

2021 Belgian Grand Prix - Friday

TYRE GAP

FRIDAY TYRE SUMMARY

  • Despite intermittent rain throughout the day, the Cinturato Green intermediate tyre was used only for installation laps (allowing an extra set of intermediate tyres under the regulations) before the drivers switched to P Zero slicks. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen set the fastest time of the day in FP2 on the P Zero Red soft C4 tyre: the same compound that Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas used to top the timesheets at the end of FP1.
  • Verstappen was quickest for a large part of the FP1 session as well: impressively he used the P Zero White hard C2 tyre to stay in front of several drivers behind him on the soft.
  • Track conditions were far from ideal today: although there was dry running for most of the day and there was already some rubber on track from the Spa 24 Hours at the beginning of the month, the damp and inconsistent surface (with track temperatures at around 20 degrees) meant that drivers struggled for grip. The FP2 session was interrupted by two red flags, as both Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Verstappen went off.
  • As a result, it was quite hard to gain reliable information about the true performance gaps between the tyres today. However, based on simulation data, there is roughly 0.5 seconds between the P Zero Red soft and P Zero Yellow medium, and approximately 0.6 seconds between the P Zero Yellow medium and P Zero White hard.

FORMULA 3: LATEST NEWS

Trident’s Jack Doohan, the son of motorbike legend Mick, took his first Formula 3 pole position after a qualifying session that was run entirely on the wet tyres (there’s no intermediate tyre in Formula 3). Doohan set his pole time within the first five minutes of the session, with conditions steadily worsening, especially in the second sector of the long lap. Campos Racing’s Lorenzo Colombo qualified 12th and so will start tomorrow’s opening race from first on the grid. The tricky conditions provided a number of surprises, with championship leaders Prema qualifying outside of the top 10 for the first time this year. Trident was also fastest in free practice, courtesy of Clement Novalak on the medium slick tyres nominated for this weekend.

MARIO ISOLA – HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING

“We experienced typically variable weather at Spa, and that seems set to remain the case for the rest of the weekend! If it rains, it will be important for teams to consider the crossover point from wet weather tyres to slicks and vice versa. The track remained tricky all day and we saw drivers struggling to find a consistent lap time in these mixed conditions, which is why it’s also quite hard to get an idea of the true performance gaps at the moment. Nonetheless, all the tyres apart from the full wet were sampled, with the teams able to collect relevant data.”

TOP 3 TIMES
FP1
Bottas 1m45.199s SOFT C4 NEW
Verstappen 1m45.363s SOFT C4 NEW
Gasly 1m45.699s SOFT C4 NEW
FP2
Verstappen 1m44.472s SOFT C4 NEW
Bottas 1m44.513s MEDIUM C3 NEW
Hamilton 1m44.544s MEDIUM C3 NEW
BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
FP1
HARD C2 Verstappen 1m45.905s
MEDIUM C3 Ocon 1m47.219s
SOFT C4 Bottas 1m45.199s
FP2
HARD C2 Norris 1m46.153s
MEDIUM C3 Bottas 1m44.513s
SOFT C4 Verstappen 1m44.472s
MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND DRIVER LAPS
HARD C2 Gasly, Tsunoda 12
MEDIUM C3 Mazepin 17
SOFT C4 Latifi 14
TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
  HARD MEDIUM SOFT
Kms driven* 1134 1323 1926
Sets used overall** 18 20 40

* 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 24.0 psi (front) | 22.0 psi (rear) -2.75° (front) | -1.50° (rear) CAMBER