Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has gone fastest in free practice for the Belgian Grand Prix on P Zero Purple ultrasoft tyres, beating last year’s FP2 benchmark by 3.3 seconds. Hamilton’s best time of 1m44.753s also beat last year’s pole (set on the supersoft) and took him very close to the all-time Formula 1 record for the fastest lap at Spa: 1m44.503s, which dates back to Q2 in 2009.

The afternoon’s FP2 session peaked at 34 degrees of track temperature and 27 degrees ambient, then cooled down until heavy rain fell at the end of the session – with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo the first to try the intermediate tyres.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“Although it’s still very early in the weekend, we can already see that there’s around a one-second performance gap between supersoft and ultrasoft, while the soft compound appears to be an effective race tyre too. With many drivers taking full advantage of all three compounds available in their pre-race selections, a number of different race strategies are possible, so gathering as much information as possible during free practice was paramount. The typical Spa weather, with rain falling during the long runs, made it hard to fully assess tyre degradation. While Hamilton’s fastest time on the ultrasoft was remarkable, close to the all-time Spa record, initial projections of race pace seem closely matched between the frontrunners. As usual at Spa, it looks like we’re in for an unpredictable weekend.”

FREE PRACTICE 1 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER 		TIME	  COMPOUND
Raikkonen 	1m45.502s ULTRASOFT NEW
Hamilton 	1m45.555s SOFT NEW
Vettel 		1m45.647s ULTRASOFT NEW

FREE PRACTICE 2 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER 		TIME	  COMPOUND
Hamilton	1m44.753s ULTRASOFT NEW
Raikkonen 	1m45.015s ULTRASOFT NEW
Bottas 		1m45.180s ULTRASOFT NEW

FP1 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	  TIME
SOFT 		Hamilton  1m 45.555s
SUPERSOFT 	Hamilton  1m 46.439s
ULTRASOFT 	Raikkonen 1m 45.502s

FP2 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	  TIME
SOFT 		Hamilton  1m 45.634s
SUPERSOFT 	Bottas    1m 46.331s
ULTRASOFT 	Hamilton  1m 44.753s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	  	  LAPS
SOFT 		Raikkonen 	  17
SUPERSOFT 	Sainz 	  	  16
ULTRASOFT 	Palmer    	  16
INTERMEDIATE 	Alonso, Ricciardo 1

TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
		    SOFT SUPER SOFT ULTRA SOFT INTERMEDIATE
Kms driven* 	    1092 1631 	    2093       14
Sets used overall** 17   28 	    33 	       2

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