Canadian Grand Prix, Free Practice – Hembery: “Consumption and degradation seem to be quite low”

Pirelli F1 – All three compounds selected for the Canadian Grand Prix were used during today's free practice, which began in the morning with just 14°C. In such cold conditions the drivers had to pay particular attention to the warm-up of the tyres, to ensure they were operating in the correct working range and thus achieving their maximum potential.

Due to the low temperatures in the morning there was some graining, a normal phenomenon in Canada, which will decrease as the track gets more rubber. At the end of FP2 temperatures rose significantly, with around 0.6 seconds between ultrasoft and supersoft, although this gap should narrow slightly over the course of the weekend.

During FP2 Lewis Hamilton has already beaten his 2015 pole time, with a time of 1m14.212s on the ultrasofts. With the weather always unpredictable in Canada – lower temperatures are expected on Sunday – it was important for all the teams to gather as much information as possible on each compound with different fuel loads.

Toro Rosso was the only team to test all three compounds. The other teams focused on a combination of soft and ultrasoft (because only the soft is mandatory for the race) or that of supersoft and ultrasoft (presumably to compare the difference between the two softer compounds).

Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: “Today the teams managed to get a good read on all three of our slick compounds, despite the low track temperatures which made the driving conditions quite complex and amplified the lack of grip. Canada always offers fun races and, from what we've seen so far, wear and degradation seem to be quite low, even with the ultrasofts."