2019 SPANISH GP: WHAT WE LEARNED FROM FP1 AND FP2

The pace is rapid, fastest time from Mercedes AMG driver Valtteri Bottas in FP2 was nearly a second quicker than the equivalent time from the same session last year. Another frontrunner was Haas, which showed potential to be just behind the two top teams in both free practice sessions. We’re seeing some degree of degradation as expected, especially on the soft tyre.

There appears to be a tactical difference already, while the soft tyres were used by everyone, there was a roughly 50-50 split of teams running the medium and the hard in FP2.

This might mean that different teams are considering varied strategic approaches, assessing long run performances on the hard and medium as well. Barcelona is renowned for being a high-energy track, but tyre behaviour and performance remained in line with expectations.

Track temperatures were warm today, peaking at 47 degrees centigrade, around 15 degrees warmer than what was seen in pre-season testing here at the end of February.

So far, the performance gaps between the compounds are around 0.8 seconds between medium and soft, and 1.1 seconds between hard and medium.

Mario Isola, Head of Pirelli F1 and Car Racing: "There was nothing special to report from the first day of free practice in Spain, which is to be expected as this is a very familiar venue for the teams and drivers. The gap between the top two teams is very close, and Haas has also shown pace that gets close to them on occasions."

"As always in Barcelona, it’s about marginal gains, so preparing well for qualifying is particularly important, as this is not a track where it’s particularly easy to overtake. We’re happy with the tyre performance here so far, with the only unexpected factor being a slightly bigger gap between hard and medium than we anticipated."

FREE PRACTICE 1 – TOP 3 TIMES

DRIVER	TIME	COMPOUND
Bottas	1m17.951s	SOFT C3 NEW
Vettel	1m18.066s	SOFT C3 NEW
Leclerc	1m18.172s	SOFT C3 NEW

FREE PRACTICE 2 – TOP 3 TIMES

DRIVER	TIME	COMPOUND
Bottas	1m17.284s	SOFT C3 NEW
Hamilton	1m17.333s	SOFT C3 USED
Leclerc	1m17.585s	SOFT C3 NEW

FP1 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND

COMPOUND	DRIVER	TIME
HARD C1	Verstappen	1m19.844s
MEDIUM C2	Gasly	1m19.285s
SOFT C3	Bottas	1m17.951s

FP2 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND

COMPOUND	DRIVER	TIME
HARD C1	Hamilton	1m18.647s
MEDIUM C2	Bottas	1m17.835s
SOFT C3	Bottas	1m17.284s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR

COMPOUND	DRIVER	LAPS
HARD C1	Albon	27
MEDIUM C2	Ricciardo	25
SOFT C3	Leclerc, Sainz	24

TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY

Kms driven*	1242	1573	3030
Sets used overall**	14	23	44

* 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
	22,5 psi (front) | 20,5 psi (rear)	-3.25° (front) | -1.75° (rear)