Mark Hughes: Was disrupted Friday hiding any pace surprises?

It seems Formula 1 power units are getting a little tired at this final race of the season.

Aside from the pre-weekend replacement units for Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen, we also had two Friday failures and fires.

The first of these came in second practice with George Russell’s Williams-Mercedes, followed at short notice by the Alfa Romeo-Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

The latter had to pull off when still on track and hence the session was red-flagged.

This came just as teams were early into their long runs. There were just a few minutes remaining by the time the session was restarted, so little can be read into those times in isolation.

However, the good news was the teams – knowing that the beginning of FP2 was going to be devoted to compulsory running on the prototype 2021 Pirelli – took the precaution of some high-fuel long running towards the end of FP1.

“The medium felt like the better tyre but it shouldn’t be. So we need to get more out of the softs” :: Valtteri Bottas

Although this session is in daylight and therefore not as representative of race conditions as the twilight/night time of FP2, it’s better than nothing.

Those FP1 runs revealed the following averages:

The interrupted runs of FP2 showed this picture:

Typically for a Friday, it paints a picture of a fast Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, with Mercedes on a different programme and not directly comparable.

We can assume situation relatively normal at the front come tomorrow, when Mercedes invariably steps up more than Red Bull either through a slightly different fuel load difference Friday to Saturday or a more conservative engine mode on Friday for Mercedes.

Only after the running of the experimental tyres (which were the equivalent of the medium compound here) was completed did the FP2 low-fuel quali simulations begin.

Valtteri Bottas was fastest in these by a couple of tenths from the returning Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen was around 0.7s off Bottas on single-lap pace, in third. This equates to the Red Bull’s seasonal average deficit to the Mercedes in qualifying this year. So situation very much as normal there.

“The car wasn’t quite the same as I had left it” :: Lewis Hamilton

“They were good sessions for a Friday,” said Bottas. “But as usual there is plenty to do.

“We need the balance better through the lap. Some corners I’m struggling with the front end, others the rear and it’s a bit tricky.

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“I didn’t get the softs in the [temperature] window. So I didn’t have any grip at the beginning of the [quali sim] lap and on my next lap they were overheating massively.

“The medium felt like the better tyre but it shouldn’t be. So we need to get more out of the softs.

“I’m mentally in a good place, my personal targets are clear for the weekend.”

The returning Hamilton was a little out of phase with the car even after such a short absence and this wasn’t helped by a brake problem which cost him 40 minutes of the morning session.

“It’s taken a good session-and-a-half to get back in the flow even though it’s a short time not in the car,” he said.

“We’ve got to work hard tonight for tomorrow. I felt like I’d spent a lot of time away from the car, so there was some re-familiarisation.

“Also the car wasn’t quite the same as I had left it. The balance wasn’t the same as I’d got to previously.

“I’m working my way back to being comfortable with it.”

Practice 2 Results