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On its first
visit to the Circuit of the Americas, the supersoft tyre has gone quickest
in free practice, with Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg setting a fastest time
of 1m37.358s early in the afternoon session.
Conditions in FP1 were cool and so not very representative. In FP2 track
temperatures were considerably higher (peaking at 41 degrees centigrade).
This is typical of Austin, where temperature swings at this time of year are
commonplace.
The supersoft and soft tyres are separated by one second so far, with the
supersoft, as expected, experiencing greater degradation. This means that
the first stint for those starting the race on supersoft tyres might be
quite short: potentially encouraging some teams to try and start the race on
the soft tyre by running it in Q2 tomorrow.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: “From what we can see so
far there is around a one-second performance gap between the supersoft and
the soft in these conditions. The medium compound is also about a second
slower than the soft, which makes it quite an interesting choice for the
race. We saw a high degree of track evolution compared to 2014, with rain
dominating the conditions last year. There seem to be a number of strategy
options: especially because this is a track that you can overtake on.”
Minimum prescribed tyre pressures: 21psi (front) and 19,5psi (rear)
Pirelli fact of the day: Leaving aside the 11 editions of the Indy
500 that were also valid for the Formula 1 World Championship between 1950
and 1960, the United States grands prix to be held up to now have been
distributed over 9 different circuits (with Indianapolis once again used
between 2000 and 2007, and with Long Beach earlier hosting the West US Gp).
Other US circuits welcomed F1, for instance Las Vegas for the so named Grand
Prix. However, no American has ever won on home soil apart from Mario
Andretti, who triumphed at Long Beach with Lotus in 1977.
Spotted in the paddock: Tony Stewart. The only driver to win a
championship both in NASCAR and Indycar was a guest of the Haas team, of
which he is a partner in the outfit’s NASCAR operation, Stewart-Haas Racing. |
FP1 - TIMES
Hamilton 1m37.428s Soft New
Rosberg 1m37.743s Soft New
Verstappen 1m39.379s Medium New
FP2 - TIMES
Rosberg 1m37.358s Supersoft New
Ricciardo 1m37.552s Supersoft New
Hamilton 1m37.649s Supersoft New
FP1 - BEST TIME PER COMPOUND
Medium Verstappen 1m39.379s
Supersoft Hamilton 1m38.701s
Soft Hamilton 1m37.428s
FP2 - BEST TIME PER COMPOUND
Soft Rosberg 1m38.082s
Supersoft Rosberg 1m37.358s
Medium Hamilton 1m38.394s
LONGEST STINTS OF THE DAY
Medium Palmer 26 laps
Soft Nasr, Vettel 23
Supersoft Bottas, Raikkonen 18
Tyre statistics of the day:
Medium Soft Supersoft
kms driven * 1808 2706 1984
sets used overall ** 21 38 31
highest number of laps ** 26 23 18
* 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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