- 22 Oct 2016 0:08 UTC

2016 United States Grand Prix – Practice Sessions

SUPERSOFT TYRES SET THE TOP TIMES IN AUSTIN ON THEIR FIRST VISIT TO THE CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS

SIGNIFICANT TEMPERATURE FLUCTUATIONS DURING THE DAY ADD TO THE CHALLENGE OF COLLECTING RELEVANT DATA

ONE SECOND BETWEEN SOFT AND SUPERSOFT SEEN SO FAR,   WITH THE MEDIUM TYRE ALSO AN INTERESTING OPTION FOR THE RACE

Austin, October 21, 2016 – On its first visit to the Circuit of the Americas, the supersoft tyre has gone quickest in free practice, with Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg setting a fastest time of 1m37.358s early in the afternoon session.

Conditions in FP1 were cool and so not very representative. In FP2 track temperatures were considerably higher (peaking at 41 degrees centigrade). This is typical of Austin, where temperature swings at this time of year are commonplace.

The supersoft and soft tyres are separated by one second so far, with the supersoft, as expected, experiencing greater degradation. This means that the first stint for those starting the race on supersoft tyres might be quite short: potentially encouraging some teams to try and start the race on the soft tyre by running it in Q2 tomorrow.

Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: “From what we can see so far there is around a one-second performance gap between the supersoft and the soft in these conditions. The medium compound is also about a second slower than the soft, which makes it quite an interesting choice for the race. We saw a high degree of track evolution compared to 2014, with rain dominating the conditions last year. There seem to be a number of strategy options: especially because this is a track that you can overtake on.”

FP1 – TIMES			FP2 – TIMES
Hamilton	1m37.428s	Soft New	Rosberg	1m37.358s	Supersoft New
Rosberg	1m37.743s	Soft New	Ricciardo	1m37.552s	Supersoft New
Verstappen	1m39.379s	Medium New	Hamilton	1m37.649s	Supersoft New

FP1 – BEST TIME PER COMPOUND

Medium		Verstappen	1m39.379s
Supersoft		Hamilton	1m38.701s
Soft		Hamilton	1m37.428s

FP2 – BEST TIME PER COMPOUND

Soft		Rosberg	1m38.082s
Supersoft		Rosberg	1m37.358s
Medium		Hamilton	1m38.394s

LONGEST STINTS OF THE DAY

Medium		Palmer	26 laps
Soft		Nasr,Vettel	23
Supersoft		Bottas,Raikkonen	18

Tyre statistics of the day:

	Medium	Soft	Supersoft
kms driven *	1808	2706	1984
sets used overall **	21	38	31
highest number of laps **	26	23	18

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

Minimum prescribed tyre pressures:  21psi (front) and 19,5psi (rear)

Pirelli fact of the day: Leaving aside the 11 editions of the Indy 500 that were also valid for the Formula 1 World Championship between 1950 and 1960, the United States grands prix to be held up to now have been distributed over 9 different circuits (with Indianapolis once again used between 2000 and 2007, and with Long Beach earlier hosting the West US Gp). Other US circuits welcomed F1, for instance Las Vegas for the so named Grand Prix.  However, no American has ever won on home soil apart from Mario Andretti, who triumphed at Long Beach with Lotus in 1977. For more info: http://racing.pirelli.com/global/en-ww/f1-america-on-the-road

Spotted in the paddock: Tony Stewart. The only driver to win a championship both in NASCAR and Indycar was a guest of the Haas team, of which he is a partner in the outfit’s NASCAR operation, Stewart-Haas Racing.

For more information: please visit our all-new website, which is regularly updated with exclusive in-depth features, news and reviews. To find out more, please visit: http://racing.pirelli.com/global/en-ww/usa-2016-practice