10/11/2017
NEWS STORY
Friday free practice was as expected at Interlagos, despite relatively inconsistent track conditions and asphalt temperatures that peaked at a moderate 44 degrees centigrade in the afternoon.
Nonetheless, the all-time lap record (1m09.822s set in 2004) was already broken during the first part of FP1 using the soft tyre, before being lowered further with the supersoft. The soft was the same compound that also set fastest time in FP1 one year ago, providing a direct comparison.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton led both sessions today, during which the soft and the supersoft compounds were mainly used, which are separated by around 0.6 seconds.
Mario Isola: "There were no real surprises today, just a little bit of front-left blistering. Again, we saw the all-time lap record lowered, with the soft tyre as well as the supersoft. Most of the drivers were able to beat last year's pole time, which shows just how much progress has been made with the latest generation of cars and wider tyres. As usual for Brazil, the weather outlook remains uncertain for tomorrow, with a few drops of rain in FP2, but not enough to run on anything other than slicks."
Check out our Friday gallery from Interlagos, here.