Formula 1 | Isola: “The rain affected the work of the teams in Austria”

Max Verstappen sets the pace on the first day of free practice valid for the Styrian Grand Prix, the eighth round of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. The Dutchman from Red Bull prevailed over the McLaren standard bearer, Daniel Ricciardo, and over the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, who appeared competitive and fit on the Red Bull Ring track.

Lewis Hamilton was only fourth, four tenths off the lead occupied by his rival for the world title. Ferraris back: Carlos Sainz 11th, Charles Leclerc 13th. See you tomorrow, 12.00 pm on Sky Sport F1 HD, for the live coverage of the third free practice session from the Spielberg circuit in Austria.

GP Styria, the summary of the free practices

* Red Bull set the pace on P Zero Red soft C4 tires in both free practice sessions today at the Red Bull Ring: Max Verstappen was fastest in the morning and then in the afternoon.

* Although a few drops fell at the start of FP2, rain never materialized during the sessions and the riders were able to run on slick tires all day. Temperatures remained quite warm, around 24 degrees centigrade in the air and 39 degrees on the track in the afternoon.

* The drivers faced a “green” and slippery surface, which offered very little grip, especially during the morning, when Formula 1 was the first session of the day on track. The rain before FP2 reset the track slightly, highlighting the evolution of the track during the session.

* In Austria the gaps between the compounds are quite small given the short and fast 10-corner lap, but the rain before FP2 made it difficult to verify precisely the estimates that had been made. The performance gap between soft and medium is currently on the order of about 0,5 seconds, while that between medium and hard is around 0,3 seconds.

Mario Isola, head of F1 and Car Racing at Pirelli

“The variable weather conditions affected today's activities at the Red Bull Ring, with the teams trying to quickly gather all the data they needed, as seen in FP1 and particularly at the start of FP2, before it started raining. However, the rain did not fall in such quantities as to seriously influence the action on the track but only the evolution of the track in FP2.

This uncertain weather is expected to persist for the rest of the weekend, which could provide a further element of unpredictability in terms of strategy. The information gathered today on the medium and soft compounds will also be valuable for next week, when they will become the hard and medium respectively for the Austrian Grand Prix, while the C5 will be the softest compound."