FRIDAY TYRE SUMMARY
* The Formula 1 drivers and teams got their first taste of Losail today, the latest arrival on the calendar. There was one free practice session in the early afternoon, held in the heat of the day, followed by a second session after dark, which was more representative of qualifying and race conditions.
* Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas set the best time of the day in FP2 (1m23.148s) while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was fastest in the morning: on each occasion using the P Zero Red soft C3 tyre. All three available compounds were used in each session, with the teams focussing on data collection over this challenging new track.
* The crucial FP2 session got underway with 28 degrees centigrade ambient and 30 degrees on track, with moderate wind gusts up to 25kph. The track temperature in FP1 was around 15 degrees higher than in FP2.
* The track was slippery and ‘green’ throughout the day, especially with sand blowing onto the track from the surrounding desert. A few drivers also went off, dragging more dirt onto the surface. There was a high degree of track evolution seen throughout each session.
* So far, the gap between the P Zero White hard C1 and Yellow medium C2 tyre is around 0.7 seconds, with a similar gap between medium and soft. The lap times were quite fast: already close to those estimated for qualifying.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“It was a busy couple of sessions today as the teams concentrated on learning as much as they could about Losail in the time available. There was a high degree of track evolution already during FP1, and this is a pattern we would expect to continue tomorrow. In these challenging conditions with a dirty track and high-energy corners, the initial data shows high wear on the left-front, especially for the soft compound: probably also due to the set-up used by the cars on this circuit. It will be interesting to see how that evolves as the weekend goes on. In the warmer conditions of FP1, the hard tyre worked particularly well as we expected, but in cooler and more representative conditions during FP2, the soft and the medium came into their own. As usual with a new track, there will be plenty of data analysis tonight as the teams begin to work out the weekend’s qualifying and race strategy based on what they have learned today.”

TOP 3 TIMES
FP1
Verstappen	1m23.723s	SOFT C3 NEW
Gasly		1m24.160s	SOFT C3 NEW
Bottas		1m24.194s	SOFT C3 NEW
FP2
Bottas		1m23.148s	SOFT C3 USED
Gasly		1m23.357s	SOFT C3 NEW
Verstappen	1m23.498s	SOFT C3 USED

BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
FP1
HARD C1		Verstappen	1m24.855s
MEDIUM C2	Ocon		1m24.972s
SOFT C3		Verstappen	1m23.723s
FP2
HARD C1	Leclerc	1m24.914s
MEDIUM C2	Bottas		1m23.324s
SOFT C3		Bottas		1m23.148s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND	DRIVER		LAPS
HARD C1		Tsunoda		21
MEDIUM C2	Alonso, Russell	20
SOFT C3		Tsunoda		20

TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
 			HARD	MEDIUM	SOFT
Kms driven*		1420	1393	2195
Sets used overall**	19	20	39

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