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At the very
start of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, Suzuka is usually ‘green’ and
slippery: today was no exception as the drivers got to grips with the three
nominated compounds at one of the most demanding venues of the year.
There was very little rubber on the track during FP1, where Mercedes driver
Nico Rosberg led home his team mate Lewis Hamilton on the soft tyre. The
same pattern was repeated in FP2 with Rosberg getting his time down to
1m32.250s.
The afternoon session took place in track temperatures of 33 degrees, with
the teams using each session to assess their long-run pace on different
tyres and fuel loads, as well as carrying out qualifying simulations. So
far, around 1.5 seconds seems to be the performance gap between the medium
tyre and the soft tyre.
One variable in the strategy calculations could come from the weather, with
rain predicted for tomorrow. If it does rain during the weekend, the work
carried out today might be less relevant, with teams having to extrapolate
strategies for qualifying and the race according to the prevailing
conditions.
In order to have a read of all the compounds, in case rain limits dry
running tomorrow, it was important for the teams to try every tyre today.
The high working range hard tyre in particular proved especially suited to
the demands of Suzuka.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: “The drivers experienced quite
slippery conditions at the beginning of free practice. This improved as more
rubber was laid on the surface. Continuing the pattern that we have seen
frequently this season, last year’s pole time was already beaten in FP1, but
with rain due tomorrow, we are likely to see a different type of challenge
in qualifying. Today there was a lot of work on the hard compound, which
seems to be a very good race tyre in these conditions. However if we
experience cooler conditions on Sunday, then the track could swing back
towards the medium compound.”
Minimum prescribed tyre pressures: 22.5 psi (fronts); 21 psi (rears) |
FP1 - TIMES
Rosberg 1m32.431s Soft New
Hamilton 1m32.646s Soft New
Vettel 1m33.525s Soft Used
FP2 – TIMES
Rosberg 1m32.250s Soft New
Hamilton 1m32.322s Soft New
Raikkonen 1m32.573s Soft New
FP1 - BEST TIME PER COMPOUND
Hard Ricciardo 1m35.299s
Medium Ricciardo 1m34.112s
Soft Rosberg 1m32.431s
FP2 - BEST TIME PER COMPOUND
Hard Hamilton 1m33.475s
Medium Rosberg 1m33.758s
Soft Rosberg 1m32.250s
MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND
Hard Sainz 24 laps
Medium Palmer 24
Soft Kvyat 22
Magnussen 22
Tyre statistics of the day:
Hard Medium Soft
kms driven * 1898 2426 2548
sets used overall ** 25 32 36
highest number of laps ** 24 24 22
* The above number gives the total amount of kilometres
driven in FP1 and FP2 today, all drivers combined.
** Per compound, all drivers combined.
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