Austrian GP: Pirelli Friday Practice Review

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in FP2 today of 1m05.483s on ultrasoft, comfortably beating the fastest time seen during qualifying last year (which was set in Q2).
Just as was the case in 2016, the weather was changeable at the Red Bull Ring, with a few drops of rain between the sessions that did not however affect track conditions significantly. FP2 started in track temperatures of 40 degrees centigrade; by the end of the session these had dropped to 36 degrees, under a cloudy sky.

With smooth asphalt and a low-grip surface, wear and degradation were minimal, with practically zero graining, meaning that a one-stop strategy is likely to be considered.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“There were no real surprises during free practice in Austria, with the soft, supersoft and ultrasoft compounds – all of which were seen on track today – providing performance in line with our expectations. With such a short lap in terms of time and relatively few corners at the Red Bull Ring, the lap time gap between compounds seems smaller compared to what we expected from simulation data. This brings the soft into play as a viable race tyre, particularly for those thinking about a one-stop strategy. However, most drivers have only chosen a small number of soft sets, meaning that some have already been looking to save those soft tyres for possible use during the race. As ever, the weather has been a question mark and we expect that uncertainty to continue for the rest of the weekend, which will obviously have a profound additional effect on strategy.”

FREE PRACTICE 1 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER 	   	TIME 	   COMPOUND 
Hamilton    	1m05.975s  SOFT USED
Verstappen	1m06.165s  SUPERSOFT NEW
Bottas 		1m06.345s  SUPERSOFT NEW

FREE PRACTICE 2 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER 		TIME 	   COMPOUND 
Hamilton 	1m05.483s  ULTRASOFT NEW
Vettel		1m05.630s  ULTRASOFT NEW
Bottas 		1m05.699s  ULTRASOFT NEW

FP1 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	   TIME
SOFT 		Hamilton   1m 05.975s
SUPERSOFT	Verstappen 1m 06.165s
ULTRASOFT 	Hamilton   1m 06.526s

FP2 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	   TIME
SOFT 		Raikkonen  1m 06.344s
SUPERSOFT	Bottas 	   1m 05.700s
ULTRASOFT 	Hamilton   1m 05.483s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND 	DRIVER	   	 LAPS
SOFT 		Raikkonen  	 28
SUPERSOFT	Grosjean, Vettel 29
ULTRASOFT 	Ericsson 	 37

TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
		     SOFT	SUPER SOFT  ULTRA SOFT
Kms driven* 	     829 	2547 	    2482
Sets used overall**  14		35	    30

* The above number gives the total amount of kilometres
driven in FP1 and FP2 today, all drivers combined.
** Per compound, all drivers combined.