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FRIDAY TYRE SUMMARY
* On a very dirty and slippery circuit with lots of dust, Red Bull driver
Max Verstappen eventually emerged fastest in Friday free practice, with a
best time of 1m17.301s in FP2 on the P Zero Red soft C4 tyres. Mercedes
driver Valtteri Bottas was fastest in FP1, also on the soft tyres.
* The track improved considerably in the afternoon as more rubber was laid
down, following two years when it was not used a lot. The famous stadium
section was particularly dusty in the morning, with both Ferrari’s Charles
Leclerc and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez going off and damaging their rear wings.
* With downforce reduced by around 25% in Mexico owing to the thin air at
more than 2000 metres above sea level, the cars were sliding more and
generating tyre surface overheating, which placed an emphasis on tyre
management.
* Conditions were warm and dry all day, with FP2 getting underway in 24
degrees ambient and 40 degrees on track. Similar conditions are expected for
the rest of the weekend.
So far, the performance gap between P Zero White hard C2 and P Zero Yellow
medium C3 is around 0.6 seconds, while the gap between medium and soft C4 is
similar, as expected.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“The drivers had to deal with an extremely ‘green’ and dirty track this
morning that generated some abrasion and graining, especially on the front
and rear-left with the soft compound, but there was a high degree of
evolution all day as more rubber was laid down and the times greatly
improved. A lot of the running today took place on the soft tyre, especially
in the morning, as the drivers wanted to preserve their allocation of medium
tyres for the more representative conditions of FP2, and also to keep two
sets of this compound for tomorrow, with some drivers likely to try to get
through Q2 on the medium and opt for a one-stop strategy in the race. We
expect further track evolution tomorrow and we’ve seen that the battle at
the front is extremely close in terms of race pace, so this could be a grand
prix where strategy makes a particular difference.” |
TOP 3 TIMES
FP1
Bottas 1m18.341s SOFT C4 NEW
Hamilton 1m18.417s SOFT C4 NEW
Verstappen 1m18.464s SOFT C4 NEW
FP2
Verstappen 1m17.301s SOFT C4 NEW
Bottas 1m17.725s SOFT C4 NEW
Hamilton 1m17.810s SOFT C4 NEW
BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
FP1
HARD C2 Verstappen 1m19.826s
MEDIUM C3 Ricciardo 1m20.984s
SOFT C4 Bottas 1m18.341s
FP2
HARD C2 Gasly 1m18.982s
MEDIUM C3 Verstappen 1m17.920s
SOFT C4 Verstappen 1m17.301s
MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND DRIVER LAPS
HARD C2 Gasly 23
MEDIUM C3 Ocon 23
SOFT C4 Giovinazzi 20
TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
HARD MEDIUM SOFT
Kms driven* 1032 1321 2065
Sets used overall** 17 17 44
* 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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