FRIDAY SUMMARY
* Istanbul Park’s return to Formula 1 after nine years was characterised by slippery new asphalt and a slightly damp surface in FP1, with cool track temperatures of less than 20 degrees centigrade in FP2. This made it hard to find grip and caused plenty of sliding, with some graining mainly on soft. Tyre wear and degradation was extremely low.
* As a result, the lap times remained slower than was expected from the predicted simulations supplied by the teams.
* All three compounds were tested, with the teams mostly running the P Zero White Hard tyre in the morning, before completing the afternoon runs on the Red soft tyre, having also used the Yellow medium in FP2.
* The estimated performance gap between the tyres is quite closely matched: around 0.9 seconds between the soft and medium, and 0.8 seconds between medium and hard.
* Red Bull was fastest in both sessions, with Max Verstappen going quickest each time. More than five seconds separated the fastest and slowest car in FP2.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“The new asphalt at Istanbul Park, which is less than two weeks old, proved to be extremely slippery. In fact, we expected something more similar to Portugal, but in fact it was quite different with very little grip. There was a high amount of track evolution despite having no support races here. On top of that, the track surface was washed overnight, leading to some areas that were slightly damp this morning. We saw a bit of graining on the soft as expected in these extreme conditions due to the cars sliding; this situation should improve during the weekend as more rubber gets laid down, drivers get more heat into their tyres, and the track continues to evolve. However, we need to keep an eye on the weather too; there’s a possibility of rain at some point during the weekend that could reset the track conditions and add to what is already a very big challenge.”

TOP 3 TIMES
FP1
Verstappen	1m35.077s	HARD C1 USED
Albon		1m35.318s	HARD C1 NEW
Leclerc		1m35.507s	HARD C1 USED

FP2
Verstappen	1m28.330s	SOFT C3 NEW
Leclerc		1m28.731s	SOFT C3 NEW
Bottas		1m28.905s	SOFT C3 NEW

BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
FP1
HARD C1		Verstappen	1m35.077s
MEDIUM C2	Gasly		1m35.543s
SOFT C3		Russell		2m02.106s

FP2
HARD C1		Norris		1m34.365s
MEDIUM C2	Albon		1m30.872s
SOFT C3		Verstappen	1m28.330s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND	DRIVER	LAPS
HARD C1		Vettel	21
MEDIUM C2	Vettel	26
SOFT C3		Latifi	33

TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
 			HARD	MEDIUM	SOFT
Kms driven*		2119	2076	2386
Sets used overall**	38	20	21

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