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Unexpected cool
weather conditions were experienced during free practice for the Mexican
Grand Prix, with the morning session starting in just 14 degrees centigrade
ambient and the afternoon warming up to only 16 degrees centigrade. Track
temperatures peaked at 27 degrees centigrade at the start of FP2, but fell
slightly during the course of the afternoon session.
These cool conditions caused some degree of graining and put the emphasis on
tyre warm-up. As a result, the low working range medium tyre was quickest in
the coolest conditions of the morning; however Sebastian Vettel went fastest
of all for Ferrari in the afternoon with a time of 1m19.790s on the
supersoft, ahead of the two Mercedes.
Weather conditions are not expected to be greatly different for the
remainder of the weekend, with the possibility of rain as well (a few drops
were seen at the end of FP1). This made today’s work especially important:
however, there was a very high degree of track evolution that means a full
picture of relative performance is yet to emerge – which should be clearer
following FP3 tomorrow with more rubber on the track.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: “Nobody expected
temperatures to be as low as they were today. As a result of this and also a
high degree of track evolution – with the surface not appreciably different
to how it was when new last year – it was hard to collect representative
data today. It seems very unlikely now that we will have a warm weekend, so
it will be interesting to see who unlocks the most out of the car and tyre
package in these conditions.”
Minimum prescribed tyre pressures: 22 psi (front) and 19,5 psi (rear)
Pirelli fact of the day: One of the oldest races in Mexico was the
legendary Carrera Panamericana. It originally ran from 1950 to 1954, and the
most famous winner was none other than Juan Manuel Fangio on Pirelli tyres,
who headed an all-Lancia podium in 1953. It was resurrected – still as a
closed-road speed race – in 1988, with the most recent winner a few days ago
also using Pirelli tyres.
Spotted in the paddock: Juan Pablo Montoya. The Colombian won seven grands
prix with Williams and McLaren, ending his F1 career after the USA Grand
Prix in 2006. He’s also only the second driver to have won the Indycar title
in his rookie year, after Nigel Mansell. |
FP1 - TIMES
Hamilton 1m20.914s Medium Used
Vettel 1m20.993s Soft New
Raikkonen 1m21.072s Soft New
FP2 – TIMES
Vettel 1m19.790s Supersoft New
Hamilton 1m19.794s Supersoft New
Rosberg 1m20.225s Supersoft New
FP1 - BEST TIME PER COMPOUND
Medium Hamilton 1m20.914s
Soft Vettel 1m20.993s
Supersoft Perez 1m21.200s
FP2 - BEST TIME PER COMPOUND
Medium Rosberg 1m21.416s
Soft Hamilton 1m20.362s
Supersoft Vettel 1m19.790s
LONGEST STINTS OF THE DAY
Medium Massa 31 laps
Soft Wehrlein 34
Supersoft Hamilton 22
Tyre statistics of the day:
Medium Soft Supersoft
kms driven * 2435 2039 1694
sets used overall ** 28 33 28
highest number of laps ** 31 34 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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